


Friend on the Other Side

by AlastorsBambi (AkaraSoma)



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series), Helluva Boss (Web Series)
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Amaurophilia, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Asexuality, Attempted Murder, Biting, Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood Kink, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Body Worship, Cannibalism, Cannibalism Play, Cannibalism Puns, Canon-Typical Violence, Claiming Bites, Consensual Kink, Consensual Somnophilia, Demisexuality, Drinking, Exhibitionism, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Feral Behavior, Freeform, Gore, Horror, Katoptronophilia, Lust Murder, M/M, Macrophilia, Manipulation, Masochism, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mirror Sex, Multi, Murder, Murder Kink, Mutual Pining, Oral Fixation, Oral Sex, Painplay, Panromantic, Pansexual Character, Pining, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Praise Kink, Psychological Trauma, Revenge Murder, Rough Oral Sex, Sadism, Sadomasochism, Serial Killers, Size Kink, Slow Burn, Somnophilia, Songfic, Swearing, Torture, Transformation fetish, Voice Kink, Voyeurism, acousticophilia, algolagnia, haematophilia, hematolagnia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-01-29 01:21:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21401818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkaraSoma/pseuds/AlastorsBambi
Summary: Bambi was sold by her ex into the sex trade. Her only solace was refurbishing an antique radio from the 1930s with donations from her "generous clientele."When it's finally done, a charmer of an Entity starts speaking to her in the middle of the night. He promises a way out for herself and fellow captives in the brothel and revenge against her captors under one condition: ownership of her soul when she dies.Well, how can she refuse when anything is better than the hell she's been through?Cuz she's got Friends on the Other Side~
Relationships: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)/Original Character(s), Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)/Original Female Character(s), Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)/Reader, Charlie Magne/Vaggie
Comments: 240
Kudos: 633
Collections: What is my life? Fanfiction probably.





	1. Imprisonment & Refurbishment

“Look at it this way, babe,” sneered the man Bambi thought loved her until about twenty-four hours ago. She wasn’t sure; he’d drugged her food at her twenty-second birthday dinner and she’d been out until a few minutes ago. “You don’t have to pay rent or any bills anymore! I even put in one of those antique radios from the 30s in your room for you to mess around with.”

“Fuck you, Kevin!” she spat, renewing her struggles. It was useless, having her ankles and wrists zip-tied together, but she was having none of this.

“You have clients waiting for you, so maybe later.”

Bambi froze, doe eyes widening in horror. He meant to pimp her out for profit, let strangers fuck her in this deceptively nice house whether she liked it or not. The panic finally seemed to set in, putting the anger on the back burner.

She dug her nails into the flesh of Kevin’s back under his shirt, thankful for her naturally long nails and not acrylics that could pop off. He grunted and moved her, dislodging her nails but putting her mouth near his neck. With a snarl, Bambi latched her teeth into the muscle and tightened until she felt the skin give way and blood fill her mouth.

Kevin howled in agony and Bambi felt a fist hit her ribs hard enough to drive the air from her lungs, but her grip didn’t falter. She felt the zip-ties on her ankles finally snap and, without so much as a second thought, Bambi scrambled to place her feet on his torso and managed to get her toes hooked on the edge of his pants. With a feral, savage sound, she pushed off with all her strength.

Bambi landed on the hardwood floor with a grunt, not noticing the pain of her spine. Her hateful gaze immediately sought out her captor. Kevin’s hand was pressed to the muscle between his neck and shoulder, much to her disappointment. She was going for an artery.

“You ungrateful bitch!” He back-handed Bambi hard enough for her body to hit the wall of the hallway with a yelp, but her eyes went right back to his in defiance. “I could’ve sold you to a pimp on the street instead of bringing you here where they take care of the girls!”

To add insult to injury, the small woman swallowed the chunk of flesh she’d ripped off with an unhinged smile. “Cut off a wolf’s head and it can still bite, asshole.”

The last thing she saw before she blacked out was his boot coming toward her face.

This was just the beginning of Bambi’s time in a brothel. It would be five years before she got out with help from some friends from the Other Side.

“There we are, Sugah!” Bambi put down the screwdriver and turned the old radio to face her with a proud smile. It’d taken years of good behavior for her handlers to allow her the tools and parts to fix it. The woman took out a microfiber cloth and started to wipe down any fingerprints she may have left on the polished wood, metal, and glass. “Dontcha look as pretty as a magnolia in May?”

Due to the lack of vintage parts for the actual electronics, Bambi had to make due with modern ones and work around them to keep the aesthetic of the radio intact.

The wood had been sanded and stained a beautiful red by her own hand, all the metal and glass meticulously buffed to shine like mirrors, and any plastic bits had been custom ordered. Honestly, Bambi couldn’t think of one thing she was more proud of sans taking a chunk out of Kevin’s neck all those years ago.

When the items where dropped off and picked up, the guards had guns trained on her thanks to her reputation of attacking anyone that entered the room that first year. She learned to bide her time, make them complacent, then rip a chunk of meat from their arms or whatever limb was unfortunate enough to get near her mouth.

After all, Bambi was one of the most requested whores in this house with her large blue eyes, fair skin, petite build, pearly white smile, and long chocolate hair. Some would ask for her to sing or talk and nothing more, others would ask for some BDSM shit that she wouldn’t even tell the other girls about. Either way, Bambi played the part she was paid to play, but only for clients.

She’d behave perfectly with them, they would in turn bring the gifts of parts or tools for the radio and speak on her behalf to the handlers. The handlers knew better, but the fuss the higher paying customers put up if she had any kind of injury wasn’t worth fighting them on it, so they devised this system instead.

At twenty-seven years old, this old timey radio was the only hobby she had outside of the rigorous work-out routine they had her on. That couldn’t be counted as a hobby, could it? Well, it’d be the only thing she had now that the radio was done.

Kevin had, surprisingly, chosen a good model. This was apparently the same radio that was owned by the Radio Demon of New Orleans before he died in nineteen thirty-three, but it had been hit by a rogue bullet in the shootout to arrest the serial killer. Bambi’s search for the life story of said killer was nothing short of obsessive.

The girls all had computers and smartphones, sure, but they were heavily monitored. Bambi was surprised that her search for the exact model and the resulting deep dive search about said Radio Demon of New Orleans hadn’t raised red flags.

Just known as Alastor, last name lost to his infamous moniker, the man had been a radio talk show host in the nineteen twenties. While doing that, he’d been killing and eating people for over a decade. The only reason he’d gotten away with it for so long was the fact that he’d take the prime cuts of meat for himself and dump the rest in the Bayou for the gators. Whispers of his cannibal cookbook being lost to time made her want to find his house and rip it apart herself.

She may have acquired a taste for people and this obsession with the Cannibal Serial Killer wasn’t helping it in the slightest.

The photographs found of him revealed a man that was surprisingly handsome for a murderer, in Bambi’s opinion. He was around six feet tall in life and was blessed with gorgeous copper hair that was always a little disheveled, if descriptions were to be believed. Alastor was lean muscled with his chest and shoulders being more defined by the padded shoulders of his suits and legs that went on for days! His hands were beautiful, as well, with long fingers and deceptively delicate looking bone structure.

Men and women wrote fanmail worshipping his voice and appearance on the daily! After finding a rare audio clip of one of his broadcasts, ironically speaking of the local police’s first inkling of his rampage, Bambi had to agree! Despite the obviously horrid quality and the almost obnoxious way of speaking most radio hosts adopted at the time, Alastor’s voice had an almost hypnotic quality to it.

Guess Grandma and Grandpa were just as thirsty as the Millennials they talked shit about!

Alastor himself was, surprisingly, chaste during his life. No lovers of any gender are mentioned even in his teenage years. Bambi felt that the poor man was some kind of asexual and people just didn’t have the vocabulary of the time to articulate it. He reportedly didn’t like speaking much on his love life and even his mother was mentioned only briefly.

That may have had something to do with the fact he himself was abused as a child by his father, who his mother had killed in self-defense. Good woman.

Bambi took Alastor’s moto to heart once she’d heard it. “Smile, my dear! You’re never fully dressed without one!”

The Roaring Twenties version of “Fake it till you make it” had gotten her through some of the worst clientele and even scaring a few off when she’d smile through the botched abuse they’d try to mask as BDSM.

Nothing seemed to unsettle even the burliest of men like a too-wide smile with bloody lips and teeth.

Then, there were the rarest of rare clients like the one that was currently being escorted in while Bambi moved to stand by her bed with the radio, Norman.

Norman was an older gentleman, probably in his mid-sixties, who came just to speak with her and have her sing. Sometimes he’d ask for a dance or two that Bambi was more than happy to give since he kept his hands to himself and asked before he could touch her, but the classy, gray haired man was never a problem.

Kevin kept his handgun trained on Bambi as one of the newer security guards gathered up her tools and checked the desk’s drawers for hidden weapons. The petite woman’s sinister smile wasn’t hidden from Norman, who’d been a client since her second year in the brothel, and he just shook his head with a fond smile of his own at the young woman.

“You’re going to turn them grayer than me if you keep that up, young lady,” Norman said once Kevin and his lackey had closed the door. While making himself comfortable in one of the leatherback chairs she had set up next to the only window in the room, he sighed.

“Kevin’s already going bald under that hat, Norm, and he’s a few months younger than me. Going gray would make it easier to lie about his age,” Bambi said, delicately placing her beloved radio on the table in front of him and going to her small kitchenette. “Tea or coffee today?”

“Tea, if you don’t mind, my dear.” Norman took some sharp looking circle spectacles from his coat pocket, murmuring a soft thank you when Bambi padded over to take it to hang by her door while the kettle boiled. She went behind the screen by her closet to change out of the barely decent lingerie and bathrobe into a modest wine red sundress and black cardigan with some thigh high socks. “I see you finally finished your project!”

“Literally only a few moments before you came in!” The woman sat down with her companion, smoothing the skirt after clipping the socks into the garter belt to keep them up. “I’m not sure if I’ll get any reception since we’re so far in the country, wherever the hell we are, but I wouldn’t have been able to get it done without your help!”

“I have more money than I know what to do with, my dear, and I haven’t seen a radio like this since I was a child myself!”

“Careful, you’ll date yourself, Norman~” Bambi teased, earning a mocking scowl. “Seriously, though. This radio has been the only thing making life here bearable, so thank you.”

“I only wish I could take you from this place,” Norman sighed as he put in the batteries he’d smuggled in for her. “Your family is still looking for you, you know. They just refuse to sell you and I’m afraid I’m not familiar with who to contact to get you out since they also keep the location secret from clients.”

“FBI would be a good start, but then you’d get in trouble, too.” Bambi stood at the beckoning whistle of the kettle to bring it and the tray of assorted teas, cream, and sugar to the table. She started preparing Norman’s tea while he turned on the radio and searched for a clear channel. “I’d hate for you to get put in jail after everything you’ve done for me.”

“That’s very kind of you, my dear, but it does say a lot that I even came to a place like this in the first place.” His tone left no room for argument, so Bambi just placed his tea a safe distance from his elbow and sipped her own. “Ah! There we are!”

_Cold as a Valley_  
Where I lay my head  
Cold as a woman  
In another man’s bed__

__ __ _Down in the forest_  
With the devil in me  
I remember the looks on their faces  
Through the sycamore trees 

_ _“Yes! Way to go, Norman!” Bambi wrapped her arms around the man’s shoulders as the song flowed through the speakers. Both of them laughed in excitement as Bambi pulling Norman up to an impromptu dance as the chorus came on._ _

__ __ _Hellfire, hellfire_  
Take my soul  
I'm waiting, waiting  
I'm ready to go 

__ __ _Mothers, children_  
Lock your doors  
I'm waiting  
I'm ready to go 

_ _The rest of Norman’s timeslot was filled with music from the radio and the two friends, because that’s what Norman had become to Bambi in the past years, discussing hobbies she could have now that the radio was complete. Bambi was reluctant to start a new refurbishment on a different radio, for some reason, but Norman had a better idea._ _

_ _“You have an eye for detail, my dear. How about I send some of my older or damaged books for you to transcribe for me?” he asked as Bambi helped him into his coat. “I’ll add more to my usual payment, of course, but I think I have one that you’ll be excited to see.”_ _

_ _“Why not? It’d keep me busy, that’s for sure!”_ _

_ _“Excellent! I’ll send it, the printer, and binding materials through the agency and you should get it within a fortnight!” Norman looked far too pleased with himself as he put on his hat and knocked on the door to be escorted out. Bambi snorted, giving the older man a hug and shutting the door behind him._ _

_ _The door locked immediately after per usual and she returned to the small table they’d had tea on. The radio was still going strong on the alternative and indie channel and the small amount of static didn’t take anything away from the atmosphere it provided as she sat back in her chair with a first edition copy of _The Lord of the Rings_ Norman had gifted her a few years back._ _

_ _She didn’t notice the station was set to the 66.6 FM or the slight red glow that seemed to emanate from behind the speaker and dials._ _

_ _

_ _An hour later, a knock sounded from the door before it opened. Bambi didn’t disguise the displeasure on her face when she recognized the sound of Kevin’s boots on her floor as she walked into her kitchen and put something in the freezer. She kept her eyes on the aged pages in front of her as the man moved to stand in her line of sight. When he didn’t move away after several pages, she grunted in a very unladylike manner and marked her spot in the book, finally looking up at the waste of her current air space._ _

_ _“You’re no longer allowed to be in here unsupervised, last I knew. To what do I owe this immense displeasure?”_ _

_ _His hand had her jaw in an uncomfortably tight grip in an instant, but she didn’t dampen her glare. Kevin didn’t scare her, never had. “Don’t be a bitch. I just brought you some venison, tenderloin.”_ _

_ _“Pre-cut so it won’t cook the way I like, no doubt.” Her nose wrinkled when he tightened his grip, probably leaving a bruise._ _

_ _“You’re not allowed anything that could be a weapon. Be grateful you get what you do.”_ _

_ _Bambi spit in his face, hitting him on an eyebrow so it dripped behind his glasses and into his eye. It was only thanks to his shadow of a lackey that Kevin didn’t hit her for the insubordination. He was led away and slammed the door on his way out._ _

_ _“Sensitive bitch,” she mumbled as she got up to her vanity to check the damage. “Superiors will definitely hear about how you marked up the merchandise.”_ _

_ _Bambi turned the radio up, thankful for the new updated speaker and the soundproof walls, and kept it running as she went through the work-out routine, checked her schedule, and ate dinner. _ _

_ _Afterwards, around midnight, she threw the venison right out of her window, making sure it hit one of the security cars and setting off the alarm. One of the few female guards came out and looked up at the still open window._ _

_ _“What the fuck, Bambi?”_ _

_ _“Kevin gave it to me!”_ _

_ _“…. Didja do anything to it besides throw it out yer window?”_ _

_ _“Nope, have at it, Barb! Take the dent repair out of my commissary!”_ _

_ _Bambi shut the window with a snap and made her way to the ensuite bathroom, being one of the few girls in the house that had the “privilege” to have a private bathroom. She grabbed the radio and placed it on the counter as she ran the water in the clawfoot tub and popped in a  
Black as Your Soul bathbomb, watching the water turn opaque black with shimmer running through._ _

_ _She put her hair up in a bun and eased herself into the water once it was deep enough. With a sigh, Bambi relaxed until the water was just under her collarbone. This tub was the only real perk about this fucked up jail cell. Even apartments with smaller versions of this porcelain tub were way outta her price range and she'd always wanted one._ _

_ _"Count your blessings, no matter small they are."_ _

_"Right you are, my dear!"_

Bambi shrieked and jolted as a voice suddenly sounded over her music, making the black water splash over the white tile floor as she struggled to sit upright. She whipped her head around looking for the source, heart rate skyrocketing. 

"WHO'S THERE!? SHOW YOURSELF!" 

_"My, my, my! What a spitfire!"_ Bambi's whipped around to face the radio on the counter, not believing her ears as they hones in on the familiar laugh coming through it. _"Yes, indeedy! It's no wonder the radio allowed me to hear you, sweetheart!"_

Bambi felt her face drain of color before her cheeks flooded with it. "No fuckin' way... No way in hell!" 

_"Oh, fear not, my dear! I've come to help!"_ After a few moments of silence, sans the sound of Bambi getting out of the tub and looking around the bathroom and her room for hidden speakers or transmitters of some kind, he spoke again. _"There's no one else here, little fawn. Just us like-minded individuals!"_

"Forgive me for being skeptical, Alastor, but I'm not used to shit like this happening." The petite woman knelt over the radio on the counter to check above the mirror and linen cupboard. "Usually, this is a prank of some sort and there's always something to show for it." 

_"If that's true, then I'm afraid I have nothing to pay you with, my dear! So if you could kindly cover yourself somehow...?"_

Bambi rolled her eyes, but threw on a pair of shorts and a tank top over her damp body. "Not sure how you can see through the damn radio, but fine. Better?" 

_"Yes, thank you! Not that you aren't beautiful, little fawn, but I am a gentleman, after all!"_ He cleared his throat, obviously flustered to some extent, and Bambi took the time to bring the radio back to the tea table. _"I'm curious that someone as young as you knows my real name, but that's a story for another time! I have a deal for you, madam!"_

"Oh? What could a disembodied voice have to offer me from beyond these walls?" 

_"How would you like to be free again and get revenge for your suffering, sweetheart?"_

_ _Oh, the Radio Demon definitely had her attention now._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions, comments, concerns?  
Emotional outbursts?  
Find me at [Alastor's Bambi](https://alastors-bambi.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr!


	2. Loss of Humanity

_“You have to be the most thorough gal I’ve ever dealt with.”_

Bambi finished typing out a clause on the word document, not taking note of the amused voice from her radio. “I’m not getting screwed over like I did dating the asshole I took a chunk out of.”

_“Fair enough, darlin’! Just let me know when you’re happy with that final draft of yours!” _

“This is the second draft,” she mumbled distractedly as she reread the contract for any gray areas. There was a split second of sharp feedback that made her jump. “… You good?”

_“But of course! Just not used to anyone caring about the fine print! Hahaha!”_ Alastor hummed thoughtfully before continuing, _“I can see why you’re cautious, given your current circumstances.”_

“I like a good fuck as much as the next person, but I’m not doing it against my will ever again.” Bambi saved the document to her desktop under Hellbound and pointed her pen threateningly at the eye that had appeared on the dial of the radio. “Even in Hell.”

She was pretty sure she heard the man choke on his own spit at her blunt language, which was laughable. The past few hours of negotiation hadn’t had Alastor swear once despite her near OCD level of proof-reading she’d been doing on their contract. The worst he’d done was call her “state of undress” distracting when a cool breeze had come through the room, so she’d thrown on an oversized sweater without question.

“Alright, here’s what we have:

**“I accept the aid of Alastor, the Radio Demon, in order to free myself and fellow captives of this sex trafficking ring. I also accept his aid in killing everyone responsible for my imprisonment in this brothel. In exchange, I give my immortal soul into his service and protection when my life expires.**

** “Alastor shall not use said soul in any future deals with any entity; my soul will also not be used as a bargaining chip in any form of gambling. No testing upon my soul of illicit substances of any kind will be done without my consent.**

**“There will also be no nonconsensual forms of contact, affection, or intimacy from either party.**

**“Should my life end before the entirety of those responsible for my imprisonment are dispatched, my soul is forfeit. Alastor has permission to temporarily possess control of my body should my life be in danger for no longer than the time needed to eliminate the threat and get my body to a safe location.**

“How’s that sound?”

_“Hmm.”_ Bambi swore she could hear the gears in Alastor’s head turning through the radio static as she sipped on her hot chocolate. _“You’re leaving a lot of leeway for me once you die. You already know of my entertaining exploits while alive!”_

The woman sat her mug down and tapped her nails on the top of the radio with a sigh. “Nothing is worse than what they’ve put me through already. You could eat me alive, bite by bite, while I was paralyzed and unable to do fuck all about it… And it would be better than this gilded cage I’m in now.”

A few moments of silence followed, not even static coming through the speaker, and Bambi thought Alastor had left despite the radio’s display still softly flickering. 

"Alastor?" Bambi tapped on the radio's display gingerly. When no reply came, she scratched her nails over the top gently. "Hello?"

She waited a few minutes before trying the one thing she knew he hated while alive besides unauthorized contact.

"Didn't give up on me, didja, Al?"

Still nothing. Bambi thudded her forehead on the table a few times with a groan.

"Men are flakes. Even the hot demons are flakes."

She walked over to her vanity to braid her hair for bed, gingerly running a comb through the thick tresses after the hours she’d spent trying to negotiate her freedom without using conditioner and letting it dry in a bun. Bambi cursed when she dropped a hair tie and bent to pick it up, shrieking and tipping backwards off the vanity stool when she looked back in the mirror.

There was no mistaking that smile after her obsessive research, but Alastor had traded in his pearly whites for sharp yellow fangs (that somehow didn’t look dirty???). His skin was a warm gray and - where those deer antlers and ears!? One of the Radio Demon's hands could probably encase her entire head with some overlap. 

His tailored red suit did nothing to hide his lean physique, but the padded shoulders gave him a dorito shape. Not a buff Chris Evans dorito, though.

Adjusting his trademark monocle, Alastor seemed to pull himself through the now rippling surface of the mirror. He stopped at his waist and Bambi _knew_ he was taller than he was human.

He was only six foot even alive.

Despite her skin erupting in waves of goosebumps, Bambi took his hand to help her up when Alastor offered with a staticy laugh. She stared at their joined hands in disbelief and even fingered part of his coat to make sure she hadn’t lost what was left of her sanity, before letting go and taking in the Radio Demon.

“Cat got your tongue, Sweetheart?”

Shuddering at the smug purr of his voice, Bambi schooled her face into its signature Resting Bitch Face and crossing her arms over her chest. “More like Deer. Not every day a handsome Eldridge Horror comes through my mirror.”

Jesus, even leaning out of her vanity mirror, Alastor had two feet on her height wise. Now was definitely not the time to remember her long forgotten size kink, but there it was!

“I’m flattered you hold me in such high regard! But our time together grows short, my dear…” Green light started to radiate from Alastor’s outstretched hand and a wave of unseen pressure made the woman gasp. The green contrasted with his red eyes and accentuated his dangerous smile. “We have a deal, then?”

Bambi didn’t even hesitate to shake his clawed hand firmly with her own. She kept eye contact even when that smile grew and she felt energy pervade her system. The front of her throat burned, but she barely flinched.

It was over in a second, Alastor reaching out to catch her and place her back in the stool when her knees gave out. Bambi vaguely noted her throat and chest feeling wet through her sudden exhaustion when he tilted her face up with an elegant clawed finger.

“Rest your weary head, Darlin’. We’ll speak more tomorrow night.” Bambi had to catch herself on the vanity before her chin smacked into it when he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke that seemed to crackle with static.

She tapped the mirror dazedly to make sure it was solid again before she got up on unsteady legs. Walking like her newborn namesake, she sat on the edge of her tub to refill it and put in another Hex Bomb.

Bambi felt exhausted.

Whatever power Alastor had transferred to her had simultaneously overloaded her senses while draining her of her own energy. Pulling off the hoodie and tank top reminded her of the pain in her throat when the cloth brushed against it. Turning to the mirror, her jaw dropped.

“You sonuva bitch…”

Cut into the delicate skin right over her voice box was a simplified vintage stage microphone from the twenties with an eye on the microphone case. At the base of the microphone was a deer skull, whitetail if she had to guess, with gnarly antlers that looked more like an elk’s framing the microphone.

The highest tines of the antlers touched her jawbone right by her ears and the nose of the skull stopped just short of her clavicle.

“Not bad… Clean cuts, like the skin was taken off between the lines of a stencil, kinda like scarification... Coulda told me he was doin’ that…” Bambi turned her head this way and that to get a better view of it before taking out a first aid kit to clean it. “This is gonna to suck…”

A few moments of bubbling peroxide and stinging alcohol, Bambi was gritting her teeth with her neck submerged in the opaque black water once again. Hex Bombs are expensive! She wasn’t going to waste it!

Relaxing with the sting fading – or she got used to it – the petite woman ruminated on the past few hours as a clock in the hallway struck four am.

She’d sold her soul to a cannibal serial killer turned demon from New Orleans in exchange for the means to be free once again.

Of all the questionable decisions she’d made in her life, sober and under the influence, this was somehow not the worst one Bambi had made.

Trusting Kevin was the worst one, by far. The emotional and physical torture his decision caused her and her family was not to be forgiven or forgotten.

"I won't eat him," she mused. "I'll have to ask Alastor if he can give me some ideas on how to flay him alive and make it last."

Bambi was going to enjoy this. The Highway to Hell would be paved with the bones of her captors.


	3. You won't Cry for Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will be more of a physical description chapter for Bambi with some Deer Fluff - if ya squint lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to say, y'all got me blushing like a school girl with your comments! I've never had this many comments on a fic and I know some of y'all have read my other ones!
> 
> If you want to do any fanart of Bambi - NSFW, gore, or fluff with **D E E R D A D D Y** \- feel free!
> 
> Submit it all to akarah-sommah (my dumbass) on Tumblr! I'm trying to sketch out her brand currently lol

Bambi's face whipped to the side when Kevin's hand struck her cheek. The force staggered her, but she slowly turned to face him while he radio'd the medic of the establishment.

"Get your ass up to Bambi's room. Fuckin' bitch scratched up her throat... I don't know, probably just wanted to get outta work or some shit," the man snarled out, grabbing her jaw to roughly twist her neck around and inspect the damage. "Tell Barb to cancel all of her appointments this week.... I KNOW THAT MEANS THOUSANDS IN REFUNDS, ASSHOLE!"

Bambi smirked despite the grip that would surely bruise.

"What's wrong? Thought I was all trained up, Micro Richard?" She choked slightly when his hand snapped to her neck, making Alastor's brand burn with the friction of the healing skin against the tactical gloves. 

"I don't know what drugs you had one of those rich cocksuckers to sneak in here, but you're in deep shit so don't try to be fuckin' cute with me."

Bambi spit in his eye for the second time in as many days, grunting when Kevin used her neck to slam her into the wall.

"You'd think someone would've fucked some respect into you. Or at least some self-preservation."

"Boris tried, bit his dick off and shoved it down his throat, remember?"

The medic came in before things could escalate, much to Bambi's relief. She liked riling Kevin up, but he had the means to defend himself right now.

Bambi had to wait. Bide her time. She'd get that quality one-on-one time soon enough.

They made her piss in a cup, which was pointless. All they'd find is marijuana and the birth control that was mandatory for all the women here.

All the medic did for the flesh wound was some antibiotic cream and gauze - which she'd already been doing.

Kevin's rough treatment set her back two weeks of work instead of one. The head pimp would just _love_ that. Kevin would probably try to take that out on her later, the bitch.

The two men left, once again leaving Bambi to her own devices like every day. Looking at the clock next to the Radio Demon's radio, she groaned and face planted into the bed.

"How is it only seven am!?"

Knowing she wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, Bambi stripped as she made her way back into her bathroom and decided to do the most mentally unhealthy thing this place actually encouraged.

Take stock of your physical flaws!

There were surprisingly a lot she could find on her tiny person, but aren't we all like that?

A heart shaped face on a slender neck that had a serious case of Permanent Bitch Face™ with pouty lips and rosey cheeks.

Ears with double zero gauges in the lobes, only allowed squishy silicone tunnels to keep them open. She missed the semi-precious stone plugs she used to have.

Wide blue eyes that she found rather boring noted the small spattering of freckles on her nose that she used to like. Now they just reminded her that she can only lay in the sun like a house cat, not run outside and feel the sun on her skin. 

Bambi furrowed her lightly arched brows in mild frustration.

Pin straight dark chocolate hair that was ridiculously thick reached her lower back was a pain in the ass. She'd accidentqally lean on it, get it caught in her armpits while she slept, fucking lay on it so she pulled a muslce in her neck.

She wanted to shave it all off, but "yOu'D lOsE cLieNtS."

Thanks to the pole fitness and forced workout routine, Bambi was toned. Probably the only good thing that came out of this whole situation was the Gods awful habit of working out at the same time every day; if she didn't she'd get fidgety.

Long creamy legs with thick thighs, an ass anyone would be jealous of, the slightest of an hourglass waist with a barely there pouch of fat below her pierced belly button.

And tiny B-cup tiddies with silver dollar-sized nipples pieced with simple black bars.

"Can't spell Bambi without the B," her mom used to tease. She used to like them being that size, too.

Always find the cute bras in cute patterns and nothing can get your confidence up like some cute lingerie or even just cute panties, right?

Then Kevin had brought her here and her first handful of clients thought she was twelve... and liked it...

One guy had died, Boris actually, before the Pimp had blacklisted those paedophiles. Rich men dying in the brothel was bad for business, who knew?

Honestly, her favorite thing about herself at the moment was the mark Alastor had left. 

Bambi, having the Aquarius constellation tattoed on her right collarbone and "Patience is a Virtue" on her left wrist, had been saving up for some new ink and piercings when everything went to shit. She'd draw on herself with the felt tip calligraphy markers they allowed her, filling up her arms and legs with designs up to her hips and shoulders, but they were water soluble. Gone without a trace after a quick shower.

The soon to be scar reminded her that she often got hot and bothered when she got pierced or inked.

Maybe he wouldn't mind marking her up some more?

"Asking is probably rude since he wouldn't get it at first. Stop being nasty, girl..."

Bambi stuck her tongue out at her reflection and left the bathroom, daily dose of self loathing complete. She threw on an oversized sweater and underwear and sat on the window seat, gazing longingly at the woods behind the brothel through the rain.

It felt like a cliche to switch on the radio and hear _Missing_ by Evanescence, but it also felt like someone had sucker punched her in the heart and made a tear slip down her cheek.

"Even though I'm the sacrifice, you won't try for me, not now. Though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone." Bambi choked up on the last line of lyrics, voice cracking as she crooned, "Isn't someone missing me?"

Alastor did not keep his word to talk to her the following night. Or the night after that, or the night after that. The first full week of Bambi's quarantine passed without so much as mild interference on the radio.

So when his stupidly attractive face popped through the bathroom mirror as she brushed her teeth, Bambi didn't hesitate to grab an antler and dunk his head into the full sink of water.

Thankfully, she hadn't spit in it yet. Small blessings, as she's said.

"And where the fuck have you been, Shadow Man?!"

The demon spluttered, pushing himself up and out of her reach. His monocle spun from where it was hooked around one of his ears as he coughed out water he'd inhaled. 

Alastor knew she'd be upset that he hadn't kept to his word - he was a gentleman and she was now his partner in a sense, he was upset at himself, but that snake demon Sir Pretentious wouldn't leave him alone! - but to think this waif of a girl would _assault_ him! HIM of all people!

Alastor shook his head and gave Bambi a dangerous smile, lips curling in a snarl as he fixed his hair and eyepiece. He looked like death incarnate, ready to devour her on the spot, contract be damned.

The little doe didn't even flinch, baring her own teeth and _growling_ at him with her body in a posture that screamed aggression. Hair down and wild, eyes focused on him like a fox watching a rabbit kit.

Yes, she'd make an amazing protogé!

A laugh and a laugh track bubble out of him at the sight; a chihuahua standing off with a bear!

"And what's so funny, you lying chuckle-fuck!?"

"Why you are, my dear!" he crowed, wiping off some of the toothpaste froth that had dripped down her chin and making her blush furiously. Apparently, she'd forgotten her current occupation in her anger. "You are entirely too entertaining!" 

"I'd say fuck you, but I won't get my hopes up," she mumbled, leaning around the radio host sticking out of the mirror to finish brushing her teeth.

"Best not to! I'm always up for a good dance every now and then!"

Bambi gave him an unamused look, threading floss through her teeth. "I don't know any dances that wouldn't breach our contract. Or leave me decently dressed."

"That sounds like a personal problem!"

Bambi exhaled hard through her nose as she finished up her nightly routine. She couldn't even be bothered to feel excited at seeing a perky, fluffy, black and red tail peeking from just under the waist of his slacks.

"Where's your jacket?" 

Since when were suspenders a sexy thing? Too bad her libido was so low, she couldn't appreciate the way the black fabric hugged his torso in the lung-blood red dress shirt.

"Oh, some fanboy managed to pull a few seams. I left it with Niffty for repairs while I visited you!" 

"Lucky me... Eye candy I can't even enjoy..."

Alastor's ever present smile fell ever so slightly when Bambi moved her hair into a high ponytail. 

The yellowish green handprints around her neck and jaw stood out against his mark and were accentuated by her pale skin. Another mark peaking from under the strap of her tank top had him reaching out.

The full body flinch she gave when his finger tips just grazed the bare skin of her shoulder would've hurt his heart while alive. He never abused a good woman.

Gently pushing the strap away just an inch had him turning her way from him to see her back and Alastor felt his jaw groan at how hard he was clenching it through the smile.

"Show me, little doe."

Bambi didn't have to ask what he meant, just sighed through her nose and lived the back of her tank top up and over her head, holding it in front of her breasts.

"It seems I'll have to start teaching you how to use some of the gifts I've given you a bit earlier than expected." Alastor laid a clawed hand over the worst of the bruising, hand basically the entire length of her ribcage. "Can't have these brutes ruining what's mine, can I?"

What an inappropriate time for the bedroom knock. It would be a shame if something happened to the person on the other side, wouldn't it?


	4. The Whistlestop Café

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The people in charge have started to go missing, Bambi is allowed in the Big Kitchen, and purritos.

"I have to say, these are the best ribs we've ever had here! What's your secret?"

"Oh, ya know... Just this little cookbook Norman gave me - Old New Orleans recipe. Nothin' special, Barb!"

"I'm gonna call bullshit, Faline." The guardswoman made a pornagraphic noise as she settled into her second serving of ribs. "There's drugs in here or something, girly." 

Bambi shrugged noncommittally, hand running reveretly over the leather cover of the thick book next to her on the counter. The red vintage microphone embossed on the spine was the only clue anyone would've had to the previous owner.

_Thanks for the obsession fuel, Norm._

Bambi sat across from Barbara to tuck into her own serving of ribs. She was the only other person in this hell hole besides Norman that would escape her wrath and it was because she didn't have any other choice but to take this job to support her kids.

Speaking of, Barb was going on about her eldest (out of five) and how he was doing in college. Sports scholarship took him to an Ivey League, but those only go so far in America's shitty economy in this day and age.

Not to mention all the extracurriculars the other four kids were into. Barb needed the six digit income this place gave her and Bambi understood doing what you had to, to survive.

"Ya know, it's too bad Dr. Red couldn't try this. He _loves_ soul food!" Bambi took a long drink of her soda, looking out the window towards the woods instead of at Barb. "Sucks that he resigned and fucked off overnight."

"Sure does," the younger woman mumbled before biting a piece of meat and pulling it off the bone delicately, trying not to get any of the dark sauce on herself besides her hands. 

Well, it was barely hanging on. The meat was so tender and sweet under the Cajun spices and sauce, that gravity could strip the meat off the bone if you left it.

_I'll have to tell Alastor that his Cajun BBQ ribs recipe was delicious. Can't even tell it's human; tastes just like pork!_ Bambi mused to herself, making a note in the margins of the recipe to try a different blend of spices with her purple gel pen.

"That's one of the books Norman sent you to type out, isn't it?" Barb grabbed the book from Bambi, flipping through it, oblivious to the brunette's split second of saturated terror. "Mind copying this one and a few more for me? These would be a hit at my daughter's fundraiser!"

"S-sure thing!" Bambi slid over a blank sheet of paper she had to adjust recipes before she made a mark in the book. "Just write each one down and I should have copies for you tomorrow."

"You're a life saver, Beebee!"

"You sneak in my candy and new XBONE games. This is spare change in comparison."

Eventually, Barb had to take Bambi back to her room, much to both women's displeasure. Despite their obvious differences, Barb was a friend and tried to make things nicer for the girls by smuggling in treats.

But that doesn't mean Bambi could trust her with the knowledge that the good Doctor Red's head, hands, and feet were in her personal freezer.

You can't really say human hands and feet were a pig's like you could with ribs and thighs.

Tongue and ass, maybe.

So Bambi rushed Barb out with another strained smile, leaning against he door for a moment before going to her kitchenette to start flaying the meat from the remains in her freezer.

any muslce would be good for a pulled pork type meal, scalp would get tossed out onto Kevin's car when he got in (hopefully some birds would shit all over his car), bones and teeth kept for whatever ritual Alastor needed them for, and anything else inedible would be to drop into the vents of the house as she passed.

The smell when the heat was turned on in a few months would be _terrible_!

Again, she knew she was a petty bitch.

Night fell and Bambi got up from her reading nook to check the shredded meat. Lifting the lid, she made a pornographic noise of appreciation.

The smell was mouth-watering! Despite the sting of the spices in her nose, she was excited to try it.; normally, Bambi couldn't stand any kind of hot spice. Even the most mild hot sauce was too much!

Taking a small test taste proved her right. That man - Demon - knew what he was doing in the kitchen. 

"Oh, it's such a tragedy that he never passed this down to anyone before his death. Maybe I could teach my little brother once I'm free..." Bambi paused. "Not people, though... He'll never cook a people."

Putting away the delicacy for later, she mused on how she'd avoided the mess of dismembering the good doctor.

Alastor had come completely out of the mirror and pulled the man into her room.

Red's throat was ripped out to the spine with sharp teeth in an instant.

As the man fell to the floor in shock, hands flying to a throat that was no longer there, Alastor held a massive han to Bambi and said one thing she _ never_ thought would come from his mouth, much less in a purr.

**"Come here, Darling, and let Daddy show you how it's done~"**

She could've died happily covered in goosebumps at that moment.

Limbs were ripped off with his large claws with a surprisingly clean separation.

Torso disemboweled in 3 swift movements. Alastor had sent the guts back home for a late night snack.

Bambi's entire room and herself was covered in blood in under three minutes, her clothing stuck to her like she'd went swimming fully dressed. Her clothes weren't the only thing wet, that's for sure, but she couldn't help but think how fucked up that was.

_I'm going to Hell, anyway!_

"Here we are, cherie!" _Oh, sweet Christ on a bicycle - he spoke French, too!?_ "Come, come closer! This bit is for you, little doe!"

Bambi willingly knelt next to him, blooming blush hidded by the blood splatter on her face at his close proximity. Alastor's hands easily ripped open Red's ribcage with a loud crack like thunder effortlessly, revealing a very weakly beating heart.

"Now, little fawn, you must eat his heart. It will give you more strength." 

_I beg your pardon?_

"Uh...The whole thing raw?" Bambi looked up at the Radio Demon's face and meeting his glowing eyes? "I haven't eaten this much of a person before..."

Alastor happily plopped the heart into her hands, pushing them towards her face. His own was menacing, daring her to disobey. "You'll get used to it, cherie! Now, eat up!"

To his surprise, his little doe didn't hesitate but a handful of seconds before ripping into the tough muscle. More blood covered her lips, chin, and neck a thick, attractive red as it slid down to her chest. Oh, a little growl as she pulled a stubborn piece away from the mass in her hands was adorable!

"Such a charming rabid Petit Chaton you are, my dear!" Alastor felt like his smile might split his face. What promise!

_What a wonderful demon you'll make, little doe!_ he thought as she even licked her hands clean, almost like she was looking for more.

"Now, let's clean this up! Can't give up the game too early, can we, sweetheart?" With a snap of his hand, shadows encased the entire room and their persons, making Bambi shudder at the sudden cold. When they pulled back, there wasn't a drop nor stain of blood left. 

Bambi's look of disappointments wasn't missed, but he'd bring it up after they got the body stored away. 

A few well practiced movements with his claws and the skin was removed. His Shadows took the less human looking pieces to the Big Kitchen and Bambi stuffed the rest in her freezer.

"Now, then! One down, so many more to go!" Bambi smiled at his look of amusement, noting his tail and ears were fluffed up in excitement bit not commenting. "You did very well today, chere! Haven't seen someone eat a heart liek that since, well, myself!"

"The iron taste was a lot, but it's not terrible."

"That's wonderful news! You'll have to eat the heart of each one, my dear deer!"

"That's fine and that was terrible, sir," she giggled, wrapping a blanket around herself as she curled up in her bed.

"Yes, I do suppose it's time for little humans to get to bed. We'll have more fun on the next kill in a few days, sound good?" Alastor didn't wait for a reply, just bundled more blankets on top of her until only her eyes were visible. "Sleep well my dear!"

And he's gone...

Bambi had screamed bloody murder the next day when she opened her fridge to find a full human brain in a Tupperware bowl and again when she'd gone into her freezer for a popsicle, completely forgetting the night previous.

She'd chopped up the brain and deep fried it. Not too bad, but too greasy for her. She'd just give it to Alastor next time.

"Bless Norman and Alastor for this cook book."


	5. But first, Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned that Bambi has no self-preservation instincts?   
None whatsoever.

With the two weeks up, Bambi dreaded the return to work. She shouldn’t have, though. News of her now healed scar spread and all of the clients had decided to choose different girls.

All except good ol’ Norman!

That was fine by her! Norman’s transcribing project kept her plenty busy, especially when he sent over an Italian tome and a few French ones. Working by the light of the moon and the sound of Alastor’s radio was bliss, though, and he’d come through to talk every now and then to help her kill a guard or just talk.

Gods, does this demon love to hear his voice… But so does she, so win-win.

“Ugh, he _knows_ I don’t know French!” Bambi thumbed through the pages of the lovely book in frustration, latex gloves keeping oils off of the delicate work. Alastor’s chuckle crackled through the speaker at her misfortune. “I only know a few cuss words, Alastor!”

_“Sounds like you need some more help, my dear!”_

“Yea. I know a few languages, but all the hype about ‘the language of love’ turned me off from French.” She turned away from her desk to take a sip of her raspberry tea, coughing on it when large hands suddenly landed on her shoulders.

“Well, I can be of some help there, chere!”

Bambi smacked the Radio Demon’s thigh as she caught her breath. “We agreed to warn me before you do that! You coulda killed me!”

“Could have, dear.” Alastor ignored the woman’s scowl at his correction, stretching her lips into a smile with one hand while he grabbed the book with the other. Bambi smacked it away and got up to clean her face and neck so she didn’t get sticky. “You shouldn’t have a gentleman caller while so undressed!”

She looked down at the sweat pants and tank top she was wearing in confusion before realizing he meant her smile. “If you weren’t already dead, I swear to fuck, Al…”

“Hmm… Not yet, darling. You haven’t rolled for charisma, as the kids say?”

Bambi could’ve screeched while the deer demon laughed at her and got comfortable on her bed, feet barely fitting on even when sitting against the headboard. Jesus, it was like a lion was on her bed, it made the butterflies in her stomach flutter and also triggered her flight or fight response.

There was no way he doesn’t know what he’s doing. No fucking way he doesn’t know how he flustered her. Bambi mumbled as she washed up, putting on some lotion before situating her red wire framed glasses back on and going back out into her room.

“You know, you look quite fetching glasses, sweetheart!”

Something snapped. She’d had **enough** of his teasing for today.

“Now, listen here you little shit -!”

Bambi took a flying leap at the demon on her bed, intent on tackling him off at least. Instead, in the span of the five seconds she was airborne, Alastor managed to put the book on her side table, grab her out of midair, and pin her to the bed. With his legs and hands pinning hers, fingers entwined with hers even, Bambi felt her face bloom with heat at their position.

Bambi was not proud of the squeak she’d made when she felt those huge hands wrap around her ribcage mid-jump. Or the fact that the almost feral smile on his face gave her tingles instead of scare her.

Monster fuckers unite, I guess?

“I’d save that bravado until you’re in Hell, my dear,” he purred, radio dials for eyes and running a sharp claw down her cheek and jaw. “You’re a bit too breakable to have any fun with now!”

Bambi nodded, goosebumps erupting along her skin, heartbeat skyrocketing, and a cold sweat breaking out when he ran his nose along the column of her throat. “S-sorry… Sir…”

_THERE’S THE FEAR RESPONSE!_

“Ah, some respect! Though you do smell absolutely _delectable_ right now, I can’t go back on my word! I am a gentleman, after all! But I will give you a gift to help with your little side project since your human companion has such good taste in literature.”

With that, Alastor kissed right behind her ear, just a peck, making her whole body jump in surprise (she was expecting a bite for her insolence). He did the same to both eyes and her other ear before pulling her up to sit against the headboard and putting his head in her lap, legs hanging off her bed at the knee.

A moment of silence passed, Bambi’s ears and eyes tingling like she’d touched an old box TV, before Alastor tapped the top of her head with the French poetry book he’d had earlier. She took it in a shaking hand and looked down at him in confusion only to be met with a cheery smile.

“Well, go on! Read a passage, sweetheart! Let’s see if it worked!”

Bambi opened the book and to her surprise the letters seemed to rearrange to form English. Alastor said something in French and she flicked his ear in annoyance when she understood it perfectly, missing the split second blush that danced fleetingly across his cheeks.

“I’m not so young I don’t know about _Moulin Rouge_, you nasty bastard.”

“Just a joke, my dear! Now, I think you should read a few passages to me to make sure my little blessing truly works!”

Bambi looked down at him with a raised eyebrow. “With you in my lap?”

“Why, yes! Tis the best seat in the house.”

“…”

Bambi gently rested a hand between his ears and antlers, waiting for a nod before resting it there fully and reading aloud to him. She was so engrossed in reading, she didn’t notice that she’d started running her hands through his hair. But she did notice that he looked serenely calm with a small smile on his face as he gave her his undivided attention.

Funny how a demon could make you feel more appreciated than any human you’d ever met. Even if he could just devour you at any time…

“Here you are! I got those books done for you, Norm!” Bambi dropped five heavy tomes in front of Norman, making the man jump from his skimming through the Cannibal Cookbook. “The French was tricky, but I got it done for you!”

“How on earth did you get them done so fast? You didn’t know French the last I knew.” Norman flicked through a collection of poetry noting a few Cajun dialect slips but saying nothing.

“I, uh… Taught myself. You know how bored I get here – especially since you’re my only client now!” Bambi brought over two plates of jambalaya, still steaming hot, and two glasses of wine. “Bon appetite!”

They ate in silence as Norman read over the poem book and Bambi stared outside. She was so close to being free. A majority of the guards had “quite” and no new ones had gotten hired yet, Barb had to pick up more hours but she was happy about the OT.

Bambi hadn’t realized how much you crave human meat once you start having it regularly… Cooking Norman’s portion of jambalaya had made her nose wrinkle in disgust when she tasted it without any human in it. It just didn’t taste the same! And the hearts, oh the hearts! With each one devoured, she gained more power. She could now influence shadows (which always took Alastor’s shape instead of hers), cause static feedback strong enough to blow a speaker, and manifest a beautiful twelve point buck who had a lovely black and red pattern to his fur…

Despite the mouthful of canid-esque teeth. Still a beautiful animal, in her opinion.

Bambi started as Norman snapped his fingers near her ear, hand reflexively gripping the radio and a squeal of static coming from it. Norman sat back and observed her in shock, Bambi noticed the red glow in his glasses and covered her neck with one hand, the other stroking the radio.

“…You didn’t give yourself that mark, did you, Bea?”

“No… _He_ did…”

Norman sat up ramrod straight, ready for a fight. “Kevin? That scoundrel touched you again?”

“Hah! No!” she scoffed, fingers lightly tracing the mark as a small blush colored the apples of her cheeks. “Alastor did…”

“And who is that?”

The room suddenly went dark, the only light from the radio. Shadows danced against the walls as static crackled through the air. Norman met Bambi’s eyes only to see glowing red around her blue irises and a pair of glowing red radio dials seemingly floating above her head with an inhumanly sharp, wide smile.

_“Why, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, sir! **Quite** a pleasure!”_

Bambi leaned her head back to look at the physical manifestation of her personal God as his hands creeped up her shoulders and smiled.

“This is Alastor, Norman… The Radio Demon…”


	6. Domesticated Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chad's $1200 Donation

Alastor brushed his thumbs almost lovingly against the glowing antlers on Bambi’s neck for a moment as he bent over her to examine it before using a claw to delicately recut the lines, leaving thin ruby trails trailing down her long neck. Bambi’s face twisted in mild annoyance, knowing the white blouse she was wearing would be stained on the collar with little drops of her own blood.

“This is the only white shirt I actually **like**, Alastor,” she grumbled, tugging on his bowtie to see the red brooch on it better. There was a delicate silhouette beneath a layer of red glass she was absolutely determined to see, but there was smudges of old blood on it. “Should I add an addendum that you replace clothes you ruin?”

_Must’ve gone hunting for his Broadcast today. Hope he doesn’t expect me to do his dry-cleaning in Hell_, she mused while using one of the loops of the bowtie to try and get rid of the grime. _It’s even on his monocle, what the fuck… That’ll be a bitch to get out so it doesn’t rust. _

“You’ll be under my care in Hell anyway, little doe! That will include the finest clothing Miss Rosie’s Emporium has to offer; everything from delicate lingerie to sturdy work clothes will be yours,” he said reassuringly, voice still crackling with interference from his feral appearance.

Norman was getting goosebumps from the static buildup in the air and he was mildly floored that Bambi wasn’t the least bit perturbed. How long had she been in cahoots with a _literal **demon**_ to not be the least bit affected by his presence let alone those claws on her neck?

He would’ve felt more at ease back on the battlefield!

“And how, pray fucking tell, does that help me now – while I’m alive?” She grabbed one of the napkins on the table and adjusted in her chair to be almost nose to nose with the brooch. Licking a corner of the napkin, she tsk’d. “For a self-proclaimed Southern Gentleman, you can’t keep your effects clean for shit, Al.”

His only reply was to lean over her further to swipe his tongue over the mark, making Norman jump at Bambi squawking Alastor’s name in indignation and disgust where he face was smothered in his chest. She wiggled and whined to get away only for one of the demon’s large hands moving to her upper arm to keep her in place, reminding Norman of a puppy being held to get their nails trimmed for the first time.

Alastor’s attention to making sure the wound and skin around it was clean reminded the gentleman of a jungle cat grooming the fur of a companion. Despite her obvious annoyance and embarrassment, Bambi just stared at Norman like she was looking at the camera in _The Office_.

Like a parent that had given up on an unruly child in a crowded grocery store or the owner of a cat that had shredded the last of the toilet paper.

“Are you _quite_ finished?” she snarked when the demon leaned back, using a napkin to dab away any spit he may have left. She moodily noted that no blood came off on it and huffed.

Inspecting the brand, lines slightly raised but clean, Alastor’s face returned to its normal smile as he patted the mark with a laugh track. Bambi grumbled at the canned laughs as she pulled the collar of her shirt out, begrudgingly noticing that – once again – no blood had travelled past her skin.

“Yes, indeedy, my dear! The lines were just annoying me a bit.” Without asking, Alastor then took a spoonful of her own jambalaya and Norman noticed Bambi prickle. “Now, let’s see how well you’ve followed my recipes!”

Bambi blushed and made a choked noise, taking a hurried sip of her wine. He hummed with his eyes closed after a few tense moments, savoring the flavor. “Not bad, chere! Could add a bit more meat, but discretion is key for now!”

Norman watched the woman almost melt in her seat as she finished her wine like a shot. She replied as he took another tentative bite of his own and he almost choked on it. “Glad you approve; can’t exactly hide people meat when the Guards haven’t ordered pork in a while.”

“You’ve been feeding people people!?” Norman gasped out, stomach roiling like a maelstrom.

“Not you!” Bambi shrugged as she used his spoon to move around his food, showing some shrimp with a smile. “I used sea food for yours. No people meat for Norman!”

“Little Doe, how rude of you to not introduce me to your Gentleman Caller!” Alastor once again leaned his long body over Bambi, grabbing Normans hand and shaking it fiercely. “Name’s Alastor, my good man! Thank you ever so much for helping with the restoration of my dear radio!”

After vigorously shaking Norman’s hand hard enough to almost displace him in his chair, Alastor adjusted his monocle and moved to hang his suit jacket next to his by the door. Making himself at home in Bambi’s kitchenette, he started pulling out the premeasured ingredients from the fridge and a stockpot from the cupboard while humming along to a tune that seemed to play from everywhere.

Norman adjusted his glasses and watched as the demon proceeded to start making himself a large helping of the very same jambalaya Bambi was eating – just with more meat in it. Turning his frazzled gaze to Bambi, she was turned in her seat to watch the man in her kitchen with keen interest and bowl in her lap. The look in her face could only be considered admiration and it gave Norman chills and he’d had enough of no answers.

“How long has **THIS** been going on!? Do you even know what you’ve done?” Bambi jumped at his outburst, looking like a startled cat as she whipped to look at him. Norman chose to ignore the chuckle from the kitchen. “You’ve entered a covenant with a bloody _demon_ and-and-and he’s just carved you up for the umpteenth time? I’m sorry, but what the fuck!”

“You said a swear…”

“BAMBI!”

“Terms, Rights, and Responsibilities were laid out for both sides before I shook!” She had the decency to look slightly ashamed, at least, with a slight blush on her face. “Like I wasn’t going to Hell already since I’m not straight and I sure as shit didn’t wait till marriage to fuck!”

“That’s not the point – My God…” Norman scrubbed his face with his hands in annoyance, sending his beard into disarray. He stared at her over his glasses for a few moments, room silent besides the noise of Alastor puttering around her kitchen, before pointing at her accusingly. “It’s your fetish for sharp teeth, isn’t it? Or is it the size kink?”

Both of the humans ignored the feedback from the kitchen when Alastor whipped around to stare at them, Guard Jambalaya simmering away on the burner. He leaned on the breakfast bar to watch the chaos of his new ward and her friend with a glass of wine, ears perked in their direction and tail positively vibrating in excitement.

“I had no idea what Alastor looked like until **AFTER** I drafted our deal!”

“So, it’s your audiophilia thing, then.” Alastor chuckled at the shriek she let out. “His voice coupled with the static probably reminds you of the Bayverse _Transformers_.”

“FUCK OFF, NORMAN!”

“My mistake.” The man sat back in his chair, calmly took a long sip from his own glass, and stared down the fuming woman. “It’s all of them.”

Bambi threw herself back into her chair with an annoyed grunt, arms crossed and pouting like a petulant child. Her face could’ve easily matched his hair at this point! “It is not…”

Alastor couldn’t help but want in on the fun of flustering his charge; she was simply too entertaining! He stirred the pot before standing right behind her, mildy surprised that Norman hadn’t alerted her to his presence, and leaning down so his face was right next to hers.

**“_Oh, Bambi~_”**

He barely moved in time to miss one of her small hands from smacking him in the face, smile turning smug at her reaction when Bambi tried to point a finger at his face threateningly.

Goodness, that blush looked lovely traveling down her neck!

**“NO!”**

Smile turning to a smirk, Alastor bent down to her level and took her hand, pressing his lips to her palm. He was not disappointed with the flush descending to her chest or the flustered spluttering that escaped her pouty lips.

_"Come to the kitchen, Darling... And let **D A D D Y** show you how it's done~"_

_"NOOO!"_ Bambi tried to rip her hand away, shrieking when Alastor kissed the back of her hand and pulling her hood over her head to hide in with her free one.

Both men laughed at her flustering, Alastor dodging blind slaps as she refused to resurface from the faux sanctuary of her hood.

"You two aren't supposed to like each other - let alone gang up on me!" she wailed.

"That's quality entertainment, right there."

"I couldn't agree more, Norm my boy!"

"I fucking hate you both!"


	7. Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An abrupt and unscheduled visit!

A few weeks later, Halloween was approaching and so was the night that would grant Bambi freedom. Alastor and Norman had gotten along like a house fire when together, flustering her to the point of ignoring them both and instead focusing on the ancient looking tomes on voodoo Magick they both brought her. No new Guards had been hired. It was just Barb, Kevin, and his little lackey, Andrew.

Andrew was skittish as fuck. He jumped at every noise the Victorian house made, wind in the trees. He babbled about shadows that had eyes and how they watched him during his patrols. How glowing eyes watched him from the tree line when he went out for a smoke.

“I’m almost concerned at how well you two get along.” Bambi barely looked up from where she was manipulating a shadow on the wall in their conversation. It took the form of the red stag and laid next to her spot on the window seat, glowing eyes squinting and throat rumbling like a happy cat when the woman scratched between his heavy antlers. “Seriously reconsidering sparing you, Norman. Can’t have two old men knowing my dirty laundry.”

Aforementioned man merely sipped his whiskey and turned the page of his own book, one that focused on guerilla warfare. He knew she was all talk when it came to him.

“Who’s left on your list, dear? Only have three of them left.” They’d been taking walks in the woods during his visits and setting up traps to stop anyone guilty from escaping Bambi’s wrath. With so little manpower for security, they spent hours digging pits, stringing up wire – turning the wood into a war zone.

“Once Barb leaves this Wednesday, it starts. She’s done nothing but help everyone brought here, tried to treat them as fair as possible while supporting her own kids.” The woman nodded decisively, nails gently scratching down the buck’s snout and under his chin. “She gets a pass and already has the money I grabbed from the safe last week in her trunk.”

He hummed in agreement. Barbara was one of a kind in this world, truly. Despite knowing she could be killed for helping the captives in anyway, she would still smuggle in a new videogame she knew one of them liked, their favorite candy, a book, etc. Anything she could manage just to give them a glimmer of hope from this life.

“It’s a shame I won’t see either of you once I die…” Bambi sighed, pressing her forehead against the stag’s. He nuzzled his wet nose against her cheek and made that displaced purring sound again. “I’m Hellbound and there’s no way either of you are… I’ll miss you…”

Before Norman could move to comfort her, the familiar hum of static overtook the room as Alastor hurriedly stepped from the vanity mirror; almost tangling his long legs in the chair in the process. He turned on a dime and used his claws to carve glowing symbols into the glass and had just taken his hands away when something hit the glass with a jarring thud, making the vanity tip dangerously far forward before settling back against the wall. All inhabitants’ hair stood on end when a muffled otherworldly screech echoed from the mirror before fading away, shadow deer vanishing into the shadows.

They all stared at the mirror for a moment of tense silence before Bambi met him at his arm in alarm. “Alastor, what the Hell was that?”

“Not of Hell, little Fawn, but Heaven! Thank you, darling.” The demon dropped his jacket on her head before rushing himself into the kitchen. Norman watched the red lump of fabric heave a sigh before Bambi moved to hang it up. “Anyone new today? A little home cookin’ always puts a man at ease!”

“No, but you knew that already…” she said, busying herself with dusting the fabric off some more. “You’re… jumpy, though? And early. Wasn’t supposed to see you until Thursday.”

“Ah hahaha! What wacky nonsense, my dear doe! I am nothing of the sort!”

Both humans shared a look at seeing the flash of white from his tail sticking straight up in bristled alarm, ears just a bit too fast on the swivel at his own noises in the kitchen, the slightest tremor in his hands as he tossed things around on the counter.

They flinched when Alastor cut his own finger in his frenzied chopping, smile nearly reaching his hairline and jaw snapped shut fast enough to click as he stared at the blood running down his slender finger. Bambi could see bone briefly before it was overflowing onto her counter. She looked up at his profile to see pinprick pupils and flared nostrils.

Alastor was always sure and precise in his movements, especially in a dance or the kitchen. He didn’t make missteps like that…

“Al –” Bambi touched the middle of his back with her fingertips, leaning back when his neck literally snapped around to look at her. She laid her palm flat over his spine, making sure not to touch the nearly vibrating tail, and rubbed his back gently with a comforting smile of her own. His strained one and overwhelming static did nothing to her now. “You’re safe. Whatever that was, it can’t get you here.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you thought I was yella, darlin’…” As Alastor turned to face her, her hand stayed in place and ended up resting on his stomach as she craned her neck to keep eye contact despite his attempt to loom and growl threateningly. “I’m no coward, little Bambi.”

“I didn’t say you were, honey,” she murmured. She finally looked away to his wounded hand, bone deep cut already slowly shrinking, and took it in her much smaller one. “But fear keeps us alive and you’re obviously scared.”

Alastor’s falsely amused chuckle was cut off as Bambi wrapped her lips around the cut and pushed her tongue against it for a few moments to stop the bleeding. Pulling away, she left a smear of it on her lip and grabbed a napkin to press against it while the wound closed.

Norman watched the demon have a face journey from the shock of a record screech to confusion to embarrassment, then finally some twisted form of infatuation. It still amazed him that this giant, menacing beanpole of a man could look so soft when he interacted with the petite woman. She, in contrast, could be sweet as an angel despite having a Resting Bitch Face so bad, you’d think she was contemplating murder.

Which she is, currently.

“Fucking twitterpated idiots,” he muttered fondly.

Bambi remained oblivious as she dabbed at his stained hand until it no longer bled, finally licking and nibbling the bit on her lip and pulling him to sit with Norman at the table in a chair that looked ridiculously oversized without said demon in it. Norman poured him a drink while Bambi offered him some venison jerky Barb had given her before setting the kitchen back to rights after Hurricane Alastor had torn through it.

The smile on his face was more genuine and his shoulders finally relaxed as she rejoined them. The humans kept to their devious studies as Alastor continued to unwind in their quiet presence, his refurbished radio playing some modern song about the righteous side of hell from Bambi’s phone. It was terribly domestic and he found himself looking forward to her inevitable fall into Hell. It’d certainly make living alone in that swamp a bit more interesting with someone almost a century younger than himself around.

“I believe I have some explaining to do for my behavior, my friends.”

“After carving that _Supernatural_ lookin’ shit on my mirror, I’d hope so.” Alastor huffed in amusement at the look Norman gave the young woman, who just stared back at him with an eyebrow raised. “What? Those look like angelic runes!”

“And they are. Well done!” Alastor took a sip of his whiskey, savoring the slight burn going down his throat before continuing. “The Extermination started today and I lost track of time. They caught me before I could get to my panic room, so I came to the second best place.”

Norman shared a look with Bambi before closing his book to give Alastor his full attention. “Extermination?”

“Why, yes, my good man! Hell is a bit overpopulated, as you can imagine, so every year ‘round Halloween, the Boys in White are sent down to cull half the population! Oh, this is delicious! I can see why you’re sparing the female guard – she has talent!” Alastor hummed around a bite of the jerky, surprised at the potent flavor. “Anyways, I usually have a panic room of sorts I sequester myself in until it’s over, but I just lost track of time preparing for our big night, apparently!”

“So, no one can just fight off the Angels? Like, there’s no resistance?”

“No such luck, sweetheart! Even the smallest nick from their spears and your soul is destroyed! Not even Lucifer himself is immune; never mind how many of the discarded spears and weapons made from the blades end up on our own Black Market!” Alastor refilled his tumbler and got comfortable in his chair once more. “There’s always a few that try, but they’re wiped out in a jiffy!”

Bambi’s face paled as felt her stomach drop straight down to her soon to be new home, the conversation fading from her ears as static overtook her hearing. To hear him tell it, Alastor was one of the most powerful and influential Demons in Hell and not even he could guarantee her safety one hundred percent. His name alone would paint a neon target on her back when she fell, she knew that, but knowing that they’d have to worry about dangers from Hell and Heaven?

She was asking a lot of the Demon and she wasn’t sure her soul was worth it. She wasn’t sure the freedom she _craved_ was worth it.

Bambi rubbed the brand on her neck with a thumb and said softly, “You can back out of our deal if you want, Al… No strings attached…”

Both men paused to look at her, heads comically tilting at the same time.

“When I fall, there’s no telling if I’ll have power of my own and if I do it could take a while to learn how to use it! You can’t cart me around with you all the time and I won’t let you lock me up to keep me safe, Alastor…” Bambi raked her hands through her hair with a frustrated sigh. “I only asked for protection, but in Hell that’s almost impossible to promise! It’s like I set you up to fail and that’s not fair! We don’t even know if I’ll be useful to you!”

“You have so little faith in me, my Fawn!” Alastor placed a hand over his heart in a mockery of hurt, smile turning to genuine amusement. “Not to sound like a conman, but do you really think I’d take a deal I gain nothing from? I thought you knew me better than that!”

Bambi rolled her eyes and groaned, “Al, you can’t babysit me for eternity!”

“I won’t have to, my dear! Come!” He stood up with a flourish and grabbed her hand, dragging her over to the three way divided mirror in the corner.

He carved a few symbols that Bambi knew were related to his Voodoo, then pricked a finger of the hand he was holding and pushed it against the mirror. She hissed and gave him a nasty look as she stuck the bleeding appendage in her mouth. Turning back to the mirror, she yelped and tried to duck under Alastor’s arm.

She recognized Alastor as a human, beautiful dark skin with a bright smile and eyes, but she had no idea who the purple anthropomorphic fawn lookin’ bitch next to him was.

“Ha-ha! Silly girl, there’s nothing to fear! Remember the night we struck our little bargain? How I took a few moments to reappear?” Alastor placed his hands on her shoulders and held her in front of the mirror again. When she nodded, he continued, “This is what I was doing! I was looking into your future status as an inhabitant of Hell!”

Bambi blinked up at him with wide eyes and gasped, “That’s _me_?”

“Yes, indeedy, darlin’!” The Radio Demon pinched her cheeks, making her snarl and revealing large canines and incisors in her reflection. Bambi smacked away his hands and stepped closer to the mirror to inspect herself, hearing him move back to the table with Norman. “Why do you think I call you my little Doe?”

Her boring straight hair was a beautiful merlot color with beach waves, large deer ears on either side of the mane of hair. A slight muzzle in light lavender that gave way to an almost royal purple stripe on the nose and followed the line of her eyebrows, merlot freckles on her cheeks. Still had the same glacial irises, but her sclera was a light pink.

Longer lavender fur fluffed up from her collar, so she ripped the oversized sweater and leggings off to see the rest of her new body. The same lavender and royal purple made similar marks on her hands as Alastor’s, the darker color going up to her biceps and looking like gloves. Her legs lacked the lavender of her hands, the dark purple ending on her upper thigh and looking like thigh highs. Her chest had longer fur that could probably cover her breasts if brushed right, she figured, then it went back to the short length and covered her stomach, staying short to her feet.

She paused when she turned, seeing black and more merlot on her back. Turning fully she gasped at the adorable tail that was flashing its lavender underside just above her thong. Following the black heart shaped markings on her tail, she could see similar hearts on her shoulders with black stripes around them, and three lines of merlot spots on her lower back.

Her favorite part, though, was the lavender heart that had the round parts on her ass cheeks and the point ended about mid-thigh, cutting into the dark purple thigh highs.

She was completely oblivious to Alastor wasting her whiskey as he poured it into his overflowing glass while he was staring at her. Lifting the books off the table and out of harm’s way, Norman cleared his throat. The Demon jolted, face turning red and splashing more of the whiskey before cleaning it up with a snap of his fingers.

“Not a single word, Norman…”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir. Got a bit of drool, though,” Norman teased, tapping his chin. “Just there.”

Eyes narrowed dangerously at the human, who just sipped his own liquor with a smirk, as he wiped his chin. The screech of radio static when there actually **was** drool on it didn’t even phase Bambi as she continued to inspect herself.

"I'm... I'm pretty..."

"You're pretty now, Bambi," Norman said with a hint of sadness.

She just shook her head and kept admiring. "Will I still have my piercings when I die?"

Alastor opened his mouth to reply, but the radio started playing _Can You Feel the Love Tonight_ from the original _Lion King_. Norman chuckled as the Demon stuttered and smacked the radio. The panicked smile on is face as he made a noncommittal noise was worthy of an award.

"She doesn't have an issue with her body. Do you?" he asked coyly.

"I can make it look like a damn accident, Norman," Alastor hissed back, face somehow gaining more color.

“Why are my teeth so much smaller than yours, Al?” Bambi whined from the corner.

"Because you're missing a pair of **fucking PANTS, MY DEAR**?"


	8. The Best Part of Killing Someone? The Look on Their Face!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beast breaks it's chains  
[Song for the Chapter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHvrY2CSfyw)

All Hallows Eve. The stage was set.

Norman had smuggled out anything of hers that she actually cared about, so she lost nothing in tonight’s affairs.

Bambi had set Barb off with a smile, knowing that duffle of cash and surveillance recordings in the trunk would go to good use. With the promise of sending her photos of her kids’ costumes, Barb had left in a flurry of leaves and dust. Bambi waved until she couldn’t see her anymore, more than aware of Kevin watching her from the porch, then picked her way over the gravel driveway to go back inside.

She shoulder checked the man on her way in, making him back into the door, and stared him down from a few steps up on the stairs.

Kevin broke eye contact first with a scoff and secured the door. Bambi smirked from her place and went back to her room to make final touches and tie loose ends. Norman had helped finish up the woods the other day after Alastor had left, so if Andrew or Kevin got away from the house they wouldn’t get far.

Norman had snuck in some bracers that had hidden blades in them, sharpened to perfection. They functioned just like the ones from _Assassin’s Creed_ and she couldn’t wait to use them. The fact that revenge and freedom was within her grasp made her giddy with excitement!

She couldn’t wait to make Kevin suffered as she had! To feel his blood on her hands, hear him scream for mercy, beg for forgiveness! Feel his heart struggle to take its last beats before she devoured it.

Her smile rivaled the Radio Demon’s when she thought about it. She’s literally gotten off thinking about it.

Due to the lack of security, the brothel was closed and “management” had organized a movie night for the Slaves before lights out. Bambi had already sent a mass text out to them warning them to stay in their rooms tonight, no matter what they heard. If one of the men tried to get in, keep the door locked. A few had tried to escape in the past and all of them knew to not interfere or they’d get punished.

Bambi didn’t care if they got punished or hurt, if she was honest. She wanted the pleasure of killing them to herself.

She had plans, after all.

Bambi sat away from the others, in the window seat, with a plate of Guard jerky to nibble on. She kept herself comfortable in a sports bra, zip-up hoodie, and capris leggings. No shoes, no! Slaves weren’t allowed shoes outside of the bedroom or unless they went on a walk with their Johns. She didn’t need them, they’d slow her down.

A few of the others stopped to ask if they could have some of her treat before they sat down; she let them, like always. No matter what she brought down for the rare movie night, she always shared. Can’t give the game away now, not so close to the finish line!

_Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious~ _

Bambi didn’t even pay attention to the movies. Instead, she watched the sun set behind the trees, watched the shadows stretch across the yard like claws; stuck in her own head.

She could hear the whispers of Alastor’s Voodoo in her head. Whatever Loa he’d bargained with, they were more excited than she was. Voices overlapped and harmonized and shrieked and growled.

She could spot her stag familiar walking through the trees, occasionally, red coat glowing in the Sun’s dying light before only his eyes could be seen. He waited for her signal to start the attack.

One movie later, the sun fully set, her skin broke out in goosebumps when a familiar voice cooed through Andrew’s radio on his shoulder as he passed her. The man adjusted the station, but the voice stayed strong till the last note.

_“Almost time, my little Doe~”_

Bambi made a soft noise in her throat in agreement, still looking outside. Leaving the room, she didn’t care that he shadowed her or that he stepped in to make sure she didn’t have any contraband. Didn’t bother to be subtle when she turned and flicked a wrist, revealing one of the blades.

Didn’t hide the smile that split her face when the lights cut out.

Bambi cut the strap his rifle was hanging by and kicked it away, dodging a blind right hook to shut the door. She kicked the back of his knee and stabbed the radio on his shoulder to disable it, blade going deep into his flesh but not hitting anything vital.

Roaring in pain, Andrew threw her over his shoulder. She landed on her bed and laughed when she almost hit the headboard. Grabbing the modified oil lamp on the bedside table, Bambi slammed it into the side of his head when he tried to pin her down and kicked him away.

The milk glass looked lovely outlined in blood while impaled in his skin, even as he hit the breakfast bar and screamed in agony, and Bambi found herself awestruck.

Alastor was right… This was _**ART**_.

With newfound vigor, Bambi pounced on her prey and fisted a hand in his hair, legs pinning down his arms. She shushed him until only whimpers remained and rested a finger on one of the larger pieces of glass, barely putting pressure on it and watching the skin split.

“W-why are y-you doing th-this?” he stammered, tears finally spilling over his skin and cutting through the streams of blood.

Rather than answer, her smile turned mocking. Her tongue peaked through her teeth as she proceeded to push every shard of glass as far as it would go, shushing Andrew like a frightened child all the while. Bambi eventually got sick of his pleading.

“Hush, sh-sh-sh-sh!” she whispered with a small giggle, extending a blade with a flick of her wrist. “You’re ruining the show!”

With practiced ease that bespoke of how often she’d had to do it, she cut his vocal cords and esophagus without touching the arteries. While he reached for his throat in shock, she flipped him over and stabbed into his C4 vertebrae and twisted. Kicking Andrew onto his back, she watched him gasp and gurgle in pain.

Bambi licked the blood that was splattered around her mouth, rubbing the warm life-giving fluid that was on her neck and chest like it was lotion. Eyes rolling back into her head, she moaned softly before focusing on the task at hand once again.

“Oh, what’s wrong – can’t move? Old trick from Vietnam; called Head on a Stick!” Bambi said with a pout that melted into a smirk. Andrew was sobbing now, muttering for his mother. He flinched and when she dropped back onto him to cut open his shirt. “Hate to cut our time short, stagehand, but I have bigger fish to fry tonight!”

With practiced skill, Bambi cut him open like a corpse on an autopsy table. Andrew’s mouth opened in a silent scream of pain as she peeled back the skin. Digging her fingers between his ribs, Bambi pried open his ribcage with loud cracks and a grunt of effort. Despite his head thrashing and mouth foaming in pain, she paid her victim no mind. She could see it; the reason Alastor had her devour hearts, literally.

_The Human Soul._

White threads of concentrated fog that twisted around the heart like a creeper vine, it was beautiful. And **delicious**.

Smile turning feral, Bambi wrapped her fingers around the heart and pulled. Slowly. Savoring the sound of the muscles tearing, feeling the panicked staccato rhythm in the palm of her hand, the absolute terror on his face.

Pulling the heart free, she immediately ripped into it before the Soul could detach and move on. Three bites and the heart was gone, heavy in her stomach and newfound power flowing through her veins. Watching the light leave Andrew’s eyes as she swallowed the last bite?

It made her feel so _alive_!

But Bambi couldn’t wait and savor her work, no. She had a schedule to keep! Couldn’t keep Alastor waiting!

She picked up the gun, noting it was her own .3030 lever action that her ex had gotten her before he’d sold her off with a scoff, and cracked open the door. Kevin wasn’t in the hall and the sounds of the current movie were still playing. Her name was carved into the wood stock of the gun with a buck skull with a flower crown.

The screams of the horror movie downstairs must have drowned out the sounds of their struggle. Good, her prey was oblivious!

Smile turning sly, Bambi shuffled around Andrew’s corpse and found several (illegal) full clips of ammo for the gun. Pocketing them in one of her hip holster purses and clipping it around her waist and thigh, she was about to creep into the hallway when she caught her reflection.

Her pale skin looked almost like cream with the blood spattered on her face, smeared on her arms, chest, neck, shoulders – any available skin had at least a speck of blood on it and her tank top was saturated. Her smile stood out even brighter against the bloody backdrop of her lips. Feeling stating prickle her skin, she followed the hand that materialized on her shoulder to meet the Radio Demon’s eyes in the mirror.

“You look ravishing, my Fawn. Now, it’s time for the main event!” he cooed in her ear. Alastor faded into her shadow as Bambi lit a few pillar candles and situated them inside Andrew’s body cavity and around his body.

She grabbed a stack of paper from her printer and started shredding them over the candles, watching flames build over the impromptu funeral pyre. She stayed to monitor it for a moment, opening her windows to make sure there was air for the flames to grow, before strutting out the door; she didn’t bother closing it, they’d all see it anyway.

As the fire alarms and sprinklers went off, Bambi took aim for the bottom of the stairs. Fellow slaves rushed out the front door, helping each other along and keeping tabs on their fucked up brothers and sisters. The petite woman took even breaths as she waited for the familiar grey eyes to glance at the top of the stairs before she took the shot.

Once again hitting the radio on the shoulder so no back up could be called, Kevin stumbled back in shock and gripped his now shattered shoulder. Glasses falling off his face, he looked to the top of the stairs and his widened further in disbelief as Bambi reloaded the rifle one handed.

She didn’t look human in that moment. Gone was the petite girl he’d once loved, used, then abused. Gone was the carefree smiles he rarely even thought of but now plagued his mind. Haloed by fire light and smoke, covered in blood, a feral smile and wild eyes.

She was an Angel of Vengeance and he was her target.

Kevin swung his gun up only to have a bullet lodge into the wall next to his eye. Wood splinters dug into his face as he flinched away, running into one of the Slaves and falling to the ground.

"You know, I miss my ex..." He looked up at her from is place on the floor, hearing a casing it the floor and the menacing sound of the lever reload. 

Halfway down the stairs, Kevin could see the blood between her teeth, the bloody footprints she left behind, smell burning hair. Where the fuck was Andrew!?

The smile somehow got bigger, looking like it would split her face. 

"But my aim is getting better."


	9. Hellfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The finale is interrupted rather unexpectedly and a new deal is struck.

Kevin looked between Bambi and the door before bolting outside, pushing several of the Slaves to the ground in his haste. One of the men tried to wrestle him down, digging a hand into his injured shoulder and making him scream. They tumbled down the wrap-around porch steps and into the picturesque lawn, both men kicking up grass and leaves in their struggle. With a grunt, the Slave got the upper hand and pinned Kevin down on his stomach with his bad arm pinned behind his back.

Kevin thrashed in his captor’s hold as others started creeping in once they noticed he’d lost his gun. Then a gunshot pierced the sky, followed by a barked order, and paused the chaos.

“Brian, leave him!”

Brian whipped around to look at Bambi as she reloaded her rifle and stalked down the porch steps. He noted the smallest and youngest of them, Sam, peeking out from behind the front door before she beelined into the woods.

“You can’t be serious,” he scoffed. Brian fisted a hand in Kevin’s hair and wrenched his head back with a snarl. “After everything they’ve done, you want me to just let this piece of shit go!?”

“No.” She made her way over and looked at her ex apathetically before turning her gaze to Brian. Her tone was soft, but promised violence when she continued diplomatically, “I want to **hunt him**. Make him suffer as we have suffered, as _I_ have suffered!”

Brian was quiet for a few moments, dark gaze turning to the house and the flames that began to engulf it. Looking at the woman smiling eerily down at Kevin, covered in blood and holding the hunting rifle comfortably, it dawned on him. The sudden scar on her neck, a Guard quitting once a week, all the electronics going on the fritz the night before they were told a Guard quit…

“The guards haven’t been quitting… Have they?”

“No, they haven’t. Neither did the good doctor,” she said with a tilt of her head. She leaned down to whisper just loud enough for him and Kevin to hear, “You’ve enjoyed the dinners I’ve been making the past three months, haven’t you?”

If Bambi was bothered by his look of disgust, she didn’t show it. She just looked between him and Kevin, raising an eyebrow until Brian got off him and Kevin scrambled up and bolted into the woods.

“Smart choice, Brian!” She forced something into his hand, a bloodied cellphone, before leaving him with a pat on the head. “Use that to call the cops. GPS is unlocked, so they’ll find this place eventually!”

“Wait! Where are you going?”

Her grin nearly split her face and the newly freed crowd could honestly say Bambi looked like she had radio dials for eyes as they glinted in the now roaring firelight.

**“I’m going Hunting!”**

The twenty year old Sam watched her disappear into the tree line with wide eyes. She retraced her bloody footsteps in the disturbed dew on the grass, eyebrows furrowing as she followed them from grass to leaf litter on the forest floor.

Bloody caribou prints were left on the stone and wood where Bambi had stepped; all the way back into the house and up the stairs to her room, she guessed… Was she really so far gone?

Bambi loved the forest at night, even more now that she could walk through it. Moss and leaves under her bare feet, moonbeams shining through the overhead branches like a cathedral, cool air in her lungs and on her skin. Perfection.

She took her time tracking her ex, letting Alastor and her Stag keep him corralled in the area she’d entrapped. His occasional screams of terror were music to her ears as they echoed through the trees.

Despite still seeing and hearing the roaring flames from the house a good mile away and no sound of authorities yet, she felt at peace. A weight off her shoulders.

A calm predator in her natural habitat, completely at ease before the kill.

With a loud snap of her fingers and a sigh, twelve smaller carnivorous bucks crawled from the shadows and crowded around her. Bambi made sure to give each one a scratch before sending them off to tighten the ring and calling to Alastor. She didn’t want to press her luck with the reaction time for the authorities anymore.

“You beckoned, Sweetheart?” he said with a dramatic bow and a kiss to her hand.

She smiled at his antics, small blush hidden by the darkness when she saw his tongue swipe over the blood on his lips. “I’ve let him squirm long enough. Time to end this before the cops get here so we can dispose of the body.”

“Fair enough! There’s a perfect spot for your little showdown with the scoundrel just ahead!” He hooked her hand in the crook of his arm, making her snort at the ridiculous height difference, and led her down the path.

A few minutes later, Alastor had to stop her from stepping right over the edge of the small cliff. A perfect little dead-end, cliff walls at least fifteen feet tall, the walls covered in moss with trees growing on the sides, and their roots hanging over at least a foot into the pit. Neither of them would be able to climb out easily.

“You’re right, it is perfect,” she whispered, directing the stags to bring him here. She handed Alastor her rifle, hands on her hips. “Take care of that for me, will you? I want to do it with my bare hands.”

“Of course, little Doe! You’re treating me to dinner _and_ a show! Least I can do is take care of the lovely lady’s firearm~”

“What a gentleman!” Bambi pretended to swoon with a hand over her heart. She straightened with a laugh, and shook her finger at him. “Careful, I might think you wanted to court me, Al!”

She didn’t wait for a reply, crouching on the edge of the roots in the shadow of the trees. Alastor stepped behind her, hidden by the tree and eyes closed as they waited. The prickle of the static on her skin gave her goose bumps and tingles ran rampant from her scalp to her legs.

Soon enough, Kevin burst from the foliage on the other side of the pit and ran straight off the edge with a pathetic yelp, a whine following after he landed.

Everything was quiet until, with a crackle of static, Alastor said, “Oop! Man down!”

Bambi couldn’t stop the guffaw that burst from her lips, falling back into Alastor’s legs with tears in her eyes. Alastor himself was more contained, but just barely. His shoulders shook and his lips were pursed in a closed lip smile to keep up appearances.

Crawling to the edge of the root shelf and trying to catch her breath, Bambi took in Kevin’s crumpled form. She could barely control her giggles as she rhetorically asked, “Have a nice trip, hon?”

A groan was the only response, so she jumped down to kick him onto his back. Taking him in, yes, he was still attractive. Straight pointed nose, beautiful chiseled jaw, baby blue eyes, freckles all over, plump lips. Kevin was almost six foot, built like a brick shithouse, and cut like a gemstone.

A lady-killer in all sense of the word.

“Time for that to change. Get up!” she growled. When he didn’t move to do so, she brought her leg back and slammed her foot into his stomach, over and over until he screamed. “I said **get up**, you piece of shit!”

Bambi started pacing around Kevin like a caged animal when he finally staggered to his feet. He watched her warily, trying to keep her in his sights as his vision blurred from the adrenaline crash, exhaustion, and pain. He noticed shadows moving and looked up at the cliffs, seeing the Stags standing at the edges like sentinels.

“It’s finally over,” she whispered, making him whip his head towards her so fast his vision went spotty. “I’ve dreamed of nothing else for _years_!”

“You don’t have to do this, Bee! I-I won’t tell anyone; not even about the other guards! I-I’ll even testify against the organization!”

Bambi laughed lowly, condescendingly, at the man. “Oh, that’s cute, Kevin! I’ve made a deal, you see, and I can’t go back on my word!”

“D-deal? With-th wh-who?” he stuttered as he pushed himself against the cliff wall.

It was comical to see this six-foot-tall, two-hundred-pound behemoth of a man corner himself to get away from a woman that was probably a buck forty soaking wet. Even covered in blood, Kevin was double her weight and had half a foot on her in height.

“You’re such a fucking joke,” she said with a giggle. “To think that I was terrified by you for half a decade when you’re nothing more than a scared child hiding behind a gun!”

“Who did you make a deal with!?” Bambi’s smile stretched to nearly inhuman proportions at his warbling voice and how it cracked in fear. It was _delicious_! “Was it Barb? Norman?”

“Oh, no! Barb has no idea, I didn’t want to put her and her kids in danger! And Norman, bless him, he couldn’t buy me from this place and he’s too old to help with all of this.” The bloodied woman waved her had dismissively and shook her head. “No, no, no. I made a friend through that old cathedral radio you gave me when you first dumped me here!”

“Thruh… Through the radio?”

“You’re nice to look at, but you’re stupid as all fuck. Lemme spell it out for you!” With a snap of her fingers, the bucks that lined the pit became smoke and fell into it. They materialized next to her, the red one putting his head on her shoulder. Kevin stared at her in horror before turning to try and scramble up the wall, only to freeze when he saw the glowing red eyes and too-wide smile. Bambi chuckled, the sound echoed by the Demon above him, as they said in unison, _“I’ve/She's got Friends on the Other Side~”_

Tears fell from his eyes as Alastor used shadows like stairs to reach Bambi's side, a large hand resting on her shoulder and brand glowing in the darkness. Bambi looked up at the Demon with adoration, like looking at a deity. Absolute and total devotion.

"You sold your soul..."

"Yes, indeedy! This little sweetheart gave me full reign of her soul when she dies! Just for the small price of helping her escape this..." Alastor waved his hand around, looking for a word and failing. He ran his claws through her blood saturated hair and made a thoughtful noise. "What would you call this place, my doe?"

"A prison in which Hell pales in comparison?"

"There we go! Poetry!" he exclaimed, petting her head again and looking proud. Bambi didn't even wait for her ex to reply; the red Stag materialized and threw him at her feet and she was on him with a feral snarl. "But now, it's your turn to join the other Guards!"

When he brought his arms up to block her fists, she grabbed it and sunk her teeth into his forearm with a sick smile. She shook her head and ripped the flesh from his forearm with a growl, spitting to the side and going back in. Kevin got in a kick to her stomach, sending Bambi sprawling. She clawed her way back to her feet and snarled at him, blood covered teeth gleaming.

"You always bitched that I wasn't dominant enough! How's this?!" 

It continued like that for what felt like hours, when it was only a few minutes. Bambi would land a blow with her hands, blades, or teeth while Alastor's shadows stopped Kevin from gaining any type of upper hand or crawling out of the pit. The man had deep claw marks littering his face and upper body, bite wounds on his arms, and stab wounds were almost sprinkled over his torso and thighs. He was covered in blood, one eye already swollen shut from when Bambi had kneed him in the face then bear-clawed him immediately after, breaking his aristocratic nose on her knuckles.

And, oh, how this lout sang and cried for his little doe!

Though he wouldn’t tell anyone, Alastor was impressed! Proud, even! Such rage, such violence, so little mercy inside such a tiny, little package! Nothing was meant to kill, only cause suffering. Bambi was like a wild animal. Completely unhinged, like a **demon**.

_Yes,_ he mused. _I made the right choice!_

A more feminine shriek from the forest made one of Alastor’s ears swivel towards the woods. One of the wispy shadow bucks informed him that the child, Sam, had been caught in one of Norman’s traps in her own bid to escape.

"You always bitched that I wasn't dominant enough!" Bambi hissed while flaying off a length of skin the size of her forearm from Kevin’s back, cackling at his tears and broken shrieks. "So how's this?"

“Little Fawn! I’ll be back in just a moment! Do try to not kill him yet, my dear,” the Radio Demon chided fondly as he took the skin from his protégé and ate it. "I want to see the grand finale!"

“No promises, Alastor,” she growled, digging her fingers into the wound to rake her nails over the ribs.

It only took a few moments for Kevin to realize through his haze of pain that Bambi's backup had vanished. He flailed until Bambi was bucked off. They grappled before he pinned her and started punching at her face. Bambi blocked all but the first, growling at the immediate throbbing pain around her eye and spitting blood in his good eye. 

"You've always acted like you're better than me, even after I brought you here." His hands wrapped around her slender throat and started to squeeze, smirking at the woman as she tried to dislodge him. "You're nothing but a cum dumpster for rich assholes!"

Bambi wheezed out a condescending laugh, nails digging into his arms. "And I _STILL_ got paid more than you for laying on my fucking back!"

Her red Stag ripped him off of her, but before she could catch her breath an explosion rocked the forest. Not paying her ex any mind, Bambi climbed the pit wall to look toward the house, where the noise had come from. Her jaw dropped.

Half the house was _gone_. Flaming debris fell from the sky and the trees and shrubs closest to the house were on fire now.

"Who the fuck-?"

"Darling? Where did your friend go?"

Bambi whipped around to the pit at hearing the pleasant crackle of Alastor's voice. Kevin was gone, no trail besides were he his boots ad scrambled up the side.

"God damnit!" Bambi fisted her hands in her hair in frustration. Glaring at Alastor, she shrieked, "ALASTOR, YOU CAN'T OLD HER LIKE THAT!"

Alastor was holding out Sam by her armpits, like a puppy or kitten. The twenty year old looked ready to commit murder or cry. Or both. Bambi certainly was ready to do both.

"Okay, I'm done. I don't have the spoons for this now." Bambi started walking towards the destruction as sirens finally started howling in the distance. "Put her down and I'll call you when were someplace safe, I've had a shower, and I've slept."

"But... What's this about spoons, Bambi?"

"Alastor," Bambi took a deep breath in before looking at the Demon, one eye swollen shut. "I want a divorce..."


	10. So... It's a DEAL, then?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are free, but freedom is bittersweet...

The next few months flew by for Bambi and Sam between interviews with the authorities and being reunited with family and friends.

Turns out, they were still in the United States. Hell, they were still in Bambi’s home state of New York! Her home in Upstate New York was only a three-hour drive away from where Kevin had taken her and it made her blood boil when she learned that fact.

Her mother and cousins almost brought the hospital down when they were notified that she was found. The women’s shared hospital room was filled with flowers, chocolates, plushies, and home cooked food was smuggled in with every visitor. They’d never had much in the way of money or what they wanted, but they had what they needed in spades – love.

While they were originally there for Bambi, her family quickly adopted Sam when they heard that tidbit of news. The younger woman was given the same amount of gifts, food, and affection – albeit with boundaries – and got her fill of embarrassing stories from Bambi’s younger years.

No one cared what they’d been through, but both women had a silent agreement to not tell anyone about Alastor or Bambi’s cannibalism of ninety percent of the guards, though Bambi proudly showed off the scar on her neck and refused to cover it with a scarf or jewelry.

Sam wasn’t so lucky.

Bambi and her mother wore matching looks of disgust when they met Karen and David. Well, that’s a lie. David was fine, he showed genuine concern and relief when speaking with Sam. Karen, on the other hand, glared at the young woman with absolute loathing. She looked like she was truly disappointed that her youngest child was alive.

When Linda, Bambi’s mother, asked what crawled up Karen’s ass and died, they found out.

Her brother, Caleb, had never stopped looking for her and used every resource he had to try and find any scrap of proof that she was alive. He had gotten too close and consequently had been silenced. Caleb’s body, along with a slew of others, were found in the woods behind the brothel. From the updates that flooded into them almost daily, they were all relation in some way, shape, or form to a current or former Slave of the brothel.

“It’s not Sam’s fault Caleb was killed!”

“If it wasn’t for her, my son would still be here,” Karen sniffed, looking down her nose at Bambi. “The only reason he was out that night was because of _her_. The only reason he kept digging into her disappearance after we’d put what we could to rest was because of _her_!”

“God forbid your children actually love each other!” Linda snarled. “Maybe you should’ve swallowed those loads if you hated your fucking kids!”

When Karen’s hand met Linda’s cheek, no one acted fast enough to stop Bambi from bowling her over and digging her nails into her neck like claws with a near inhuman yowl. Sam noticed her civet shadow stopping the door from being opened and couldn’t find it in herself to care.

Karen squawked like a seagull, a chair screeched across the tiled floor; one of the bedside tables upended, sending flowers and gifts airborne. Small drops of blood fell onto the stark white of the tiles.

“If you **EVER** lay your hands on my mother – or Sam, for that matter, again,” Bambi rumbled, teeth bared right in front of Karen’s nose with her nails just barely drawing blood on her neck. “They won’t know where to find the parts of your body I leave behind.”

“She’s insane! Help!” Karen’s bland beige acrylics scratched at her arms before she was shaken hard enough for the back of her head to meet the floor with a warning.

“Yes, indeedy, I am, Bitch! I’ve been through shit you couldn’t imagine and your fucking **DAUGHTER** had it worse than I did,” she hissed with a too wide smile. “My moral compass is so skewed that murder is absolutely on the table for me! Now… Do. You. Understand. Me?”

Karen gave a shaky nod and Bambi released her to stand between Sam and her parents protectively. David rushed in to help his wife up, but didn’t say anything about how she was treated. Just ushered her to the door, that finally allowed the doctors and orderlies in, and told her to wait in the car. He talked the doctors into leaving, stating that his wife was just upset and yelling.

“S-she’ll come around, Sam,” he said as he turned back to them, smile sad and weak. “By the time you come home, it’ll be just like it was before!”

“I think you should leave…” Linda placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder reassuringly, thumb rubbing in calming circles. “You’re upsetting them both.”

David opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, then thought better and just left. Bambi called a nurse in to check Linda’s cheek and sat next to Sam for the rest of her visit. Sam didn’t cry, she’d shutdown. All she could do is wait until she came out of it.

At midnight, after hours of quiet, the spell was broken.

“Hey, Bambi… You asleep?”

“You know I’m not,” came the answer from where she sat in the window. “What’s up?”

“I don’t want them to take me again…” Sam fisted her hands in the blanket and took a deep breath. “I’d like to make a deal…”

Bambi’s eyes looked like her namesake in that moment, wide and bewildered, as she whipped around to look at her companion. “With _**Alastor**_!?”

“No! No! Hell no! I’ll never let another man own me!” she spat. “With you!”

“Oh…Uh…” Bambi rubbed the back of her neck, cracking it. “What for?”

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but you made it look so easy to take them all. Not even the Johns fucked with you!”

She snorted, turning back to the window. “I have no self-preservation instincts, that’s why I made sure Alastor would protect me.”

“You’re still the one that killed twelve Guards, orchestrated the escape, and would’ve killed Kevin if I hadn’t blow up the house…” Sam looked towards the woman sheepishly. “Sorry about that, by the way…”

“Al’s already on it. He’ll flush him out soon enough.” Bambi turned back to Sam, glacial eyes seeming to glow. “So, what’s the deal?”

“Protection. Power.” Bambi was quiet, head tilted to the side, so she continued. “I want to be able to defend myself!”

Ice blue eyes like embers from the shadows. “And what do I get in exchange?”

“A minion, I guess? I know you won’t abuse me like they did…” Sam shrugged and picked at the blanket nervously.

“Hmm…” Bambi stood and made the short trip to Sam’s bed, sitting next to her and holding out her hand. When Sam took it, her eyes and hand began to glow, lines of neon blue energy snaking over their forearms and binding their hands together.

“In exchange for teaching you what I know, to protect yourself and those precious to you, do you agree to be your own person and not take your own life? You will do nothing to endanger your soul in this life or the next, including going out on Extermination Day, when we reunite with Alastor. Do we have a deal?”

Sam’s gaze snapped from the humming, warm lines on their arms to meet Bambi’s. The tension was thick and Sam was confused. This woman was giving her everything for practically nothing!

“Deal. But… What’s Extermination Day?”

Before they’d been released by the hospital, the investigation started.

The interviews with the FBI and other federal agencies and video testimonies for the trials had been done since they couldn’t leave. Norman and Barb had found out what hospital they were at and got the number to their room, much to Bambi’s delight. They weren’t allowed to meet in person due to the trial, but both women appealed vehemently for them to not be charged, citing the kindness and compassion both individuals had shown to them and the other Slaves.

Wisely, Brian and the other survivors said nothing of Bambi’s rampage while backing up their claims on Norman and Barbara’s behavior. Barb also came forward with the security tapes Bambi had stashed in her bags.

The psych-evals had been a trip for both women. Both had been apathetic when describing their time in the brothel; seeming indifferent, completely checking out emotionally, or having the worst of the memories repressed. This allowed them to avoid being suspected of starting the fire and, in Sam’s case, blowing the Gods forsaken building up with three people still inside.

Any suspicion towards the petite women fell to the wayside as the search turned towards the security company that had hired Barbara and the other guards and who had them on payroll. Norman and Barb were cleared of charges, but Kevin had not been found despite the nationwide man-hunt and updated description Bambi had given with all of his new wounds.

The day they were released, Bambi snagged Sam’s phone and put in her number, keeping the gremlin at bay with her leg until she was done. David was, wisely, the only one that showed up to pick her up. He also stayed by his vehicle.

Another wise decision.

“Listen, you know you have a place with me if you decide to leave, right?” Bambi handed the phone back and hugged her tightly. “Just call me or Alastor and I’ll come get you, okay?”

Sam nodded and hesitantly hugging back before turning to her father. Bambi crossed her arms and glared at him until the car was out of sight before getting into her mother’s car and heading home herself.

She didn’t like Karen. Not at all.


	11. I'm Almost There!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Home is where the Radio is!

On January twenty-seventh, Norman and Linda blindfolded Bambi and took her to the airport. The GPS on her phone was disabled and she was given noise cancelling headphones once on Norman’s private jet. She was of course allowed to call and text Sam, excitedly telling her friend about being spirited away as she did a few shots of whiskey with her mother and Alastor’s radio finally back at her side.

Linda had been a little shocked at how Bambi had thrown herself into Norman’s car with a squeal when she’d seen it. She’d even kissed it and scratched it gently with her nails as she settled in for the ride to the airport, leaving Norman to stumble into a censored version of why Bambi was so attached.

Can’t have mommy knowing about the Radio Demon, can we? Besides it’d been three months since she’d been able to see him! Didn’t want him messing with her poor mother.

Norman and Linda got along like a damn house fire, if you’ll excuse the pun. They were around the same age and had the same twisted humor that Bambi herself did – after all, where do you think she got it from?

Despite his affluence, he’d been a staple in Bambi’s home the past month since she’d been released. Norman had done everything in his power to make sure she was comfortable, including new cars and cell phones for herself and Linda. He had one for Sam, too, but Bambi kept it until the younger would come home.

Now on the plane and feeling a pleasant buzz (or was that radio static on her skin?), Bambi was bothering her elders with Twenty Questions. Norman didn’t have that smirk unless he was bothering Alastor, he had something planned and so did her mother!

“Is it Disney World?”

“No, but it has something to do with your favorite Disney movies.”

Ooh! I’m getting warmer! Um…” Bambi tapped her chin, sipping the green apple whiskey and nails gently drumming on the radio. She sat up on her knees to look out the window, noting the rural fields. “It’s not _Brave_ or _Hercules_, we haven’t crossed the ocean… And we’ve passed Massachusetts so it’s not _Hocus Pocus_…!”

Linda chuckled behind her own tumbler of Fireball. “Give her a hint, Norm. She’s such a lightweight!”

“Oh, I know. That’s why it’s fun,” Norman chortled. “Alright. It has something to do with a certain Shadow Man.”

_“Which one of you naughty dearies been messin’ with the **Shadow** Man!”_ Bambi imitated, face morphing into the perfect squint of an old woman. The elders cackled at her misfortune and muttering of lines. “‘You sure this is the right blind-voodoo-lady-who-lives-in-a-boat-in-a-tree-in-the-bayou?’ Oh my Gods, I KNOW THIS!”

“Before she was taken, you would not win a Disney Trivia game with her around, you know.”

“Really, I had no idea she was such a fanatic –”

Bambi interrupted Norman’s inquiry by throwing her head back and belting out, “Dreams do come true in _Neeeew Oooor-Leeeeeeeeeaaans_!”

She misjudged the oomph behind her impromptu solo, though, and fell backwards off the couch with a yelp just as their pilot announced they were indeed beginning their decent into Louisiana. Linda had snorted some of her Fireball and Norman had spilled almost his entire tumbler onto his slacks.

“I can still kick your ass in Disney Trivia, Biotch!” Bambi giggled, crawling back onto the couch and hugging the cathedral radio to her chest. She was giddy with excitement!

Alastor was born and raised here! He hunted here! She felt static race across her skin and scalp like a phantom hand.

They were _home_!

Bambi couldn’t hide her smile as they got off the plane, almost running the poor attendant over to get into the private car that was on the tarmac. She sat in front with Norman as they drove off into the iconic city, radio secure in her lap. The French Quarter took her breath away and so did the huge plantation houses, but the graveyards. Oh, they called to her just as loud as the bayou did! If they weren’t careful, Bambi was going to wander off with the radio and become the next blind-voodoo-lady-who-lives-in-a-boat-in-a-tree-in-the-bayou.

Well, green-kitchen-witch-who-lives-in-a-boat-in-a-tree-in-the-bayou, but her patron was into Voodoo.

Norman drove them out into a more rural area, pulling of onto a neatly cobbled driveway that lead into a forest. She looked down at the cobblestones and saw, to her great amusement, that there was a pattern of red hoof prints worked into them. Bambi gave Norman a cheeky look and he winked in return.

Bambi unbuckled to snag some low-hanging moss from a branch, not even budging when Norman wrapped an arm around a thigh to stop her from toppling out of the convertible. She brought the moss to her face and took a deep breath, the scent of dirt and clean air filling her lungs.

“Norman, where are we going? You didn’t build me a house did you?” she jested as she settled back into her seat.

“Not at all, my dear,” he replied, pulling them around the final corner to show a modest two level plantation house with red shutters and a wrap-around porch with a smug smile. It wasn’t huge by any means, but it was about the size of the brothel. “Just renovated one.”

Bambi looked between the house, Norman, and her mother multiple times, mouth open like a fish. “This-this is _mine_? This entire house is MINE?”

“Soon as you sign the paperwork, yes.”

Linda left them to talk while she took the luggage to the porch and unlocked the front door. She knew they needed privacy. This kind man helped her daughter escape Hell on earth. If there was one person she could trust, it was Norman.

Making her way up the walkway, Bambi’s attention was pulled into the yard where a large Japanese maple grew. The trunk was probably twice as wide as she was and she noted in the tree where there were grooves in a thick branch that ran almost parallel to the ground. There were just three, one looked like it was burned.

“One for the swing for when He was nice; One for the deer He’d chop up and dice…” Bambi felt tears form in her eyes and spill over as she looked back at her friend. “And one for the prey he ensnared with the sound of His Voice…”

Norman stood away from her, still within arm’s reach if she fell, but giving her and the radio some space.

_“This is **His** house…”_ she whispered, leaning on the tree when the world spun with the realization. _“You bought Alastor’s house!”_

“Had to keep myself busy somehow after your grand escape, didn’t I?” Norman surveyed the immaculate yard, lined with herbs to keep away the insect pests from the nearby swamp and for privacy. “Also, the old boy gets terribly annoying when he’s bored.”

“Why?” Bambi sniffed, taking the handkerchief he offered without question.

“Because there is no safer place for you than where Alastor’s power is strongest. This one spot is where he butchered his victims, did his rituals, broadcast his show. Where he was born and…” Norman looked around the yard. “…where he died. There’s enough energy here for him to feed off and keep you safe until you pass into his care…”

_“Yes, little one. I engraved the very foundation and perimeter with sigils and all manner of spells to keep it safe while I was alive! Now, it will keep you safe while we find the last heart for you! My mother and I should be buried here, as well, so the whole yard is graveyard soil for you to use!”_ Alastor’s voice cracked a bit in his excitement, making her smile through the tears even when he muttered, _“Somewhere or other… We need to find my final resting place, unfortunately…”_

Tears began anew in earnest at hearing Alastor’s voice for the first time in months. He sounded so excited, so happy! The tears alarmed him, though.

_“You said she would be happy!”_ the radio crackled threateningly.

“I am, Al! I’m just emotional!” Bambi wailed, feeling too much to function.

_ “Oh! Well, then…”_ Alastor trailed off before snapping right back to his usual bubbly self. _“Shall we go inside? I do love what Norman and I have done with the old place!”_

Besides obvious modern electricity, plumbing, and appliances, the home looked just like it had when Bambi had looked through the crime scene photos. She was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to be able to dive-bomb the couch and sink into it like she had, so the furniture was all probably custom. The kitchen was all copper metal and farm sinks and a huge island in the middle. All hardwood floors with vintage area rugs for easy clean-up and a root cellar, too!

Bambi loved it, but as they got to the master bedroom, she hesitated.

This is where Alastor used to broadcast…

This is where he’d killed his first victims…

This is where he had slept…

Being an empath, the imprint this property left was massive and she’d had to have Norman pull over on the way so she could ground herself. As it was, she could feel the static dancing on her skin from the radio and dragged her nails over the dials for a different source of stimulation. Bambi could smell the blood in the air like it was fresh instead of almost a century old…

She tuned out Linda and Norman as they talked about the room and changed they’d made, shaking her head to get rid of the spectral blood that seeped into her vision. The room was nice with black stained wood armoire, vanity, and dresser. A metal four poster California king was proudly placed in front of the windows that overlooked the back yard, though the headboard looked perfect for being tied to…

“That’s definitely not yours, is it?” Bambi said, setting the radio on the side table and stretching over the bed like a cat. She didn’t notice her mother and Norm leave her, door barely ajar.

_“Unfortunately not, my dear! All of my belongings were ransacked or destroyed over the years, so Norm picked out the bed. Everything else is my darling mother’s!”_ His voice trailed off. _“This picture survived, though. The last picture of us before she passed…”_

Bambi picked up the metal frame, loving the metal vines that made it up and little deer on the bottom. The man in the photo was obviously Alastor, tending to a full pig on a huge barbeque, caught in the middle of a laugh it looked like by his mother; a gorgeous, stocky woman with ebony skin, hair up in beautiful braids that had charms throughout. She was smiling and putting some beignets on the nearby table.

“Goodness, you definitely didn’t get your height from her! She’s shorter than me!”

_“Five foot even, but woe be to even me if I touched what was cookin’ before it was done!”_

Bambi side eyed the vanity, seeing Alastor’s shadow looking toward the frame lovingly. “Did ya get the spoon if ya did?”

_“I believe you kids today call it the chancla!”_ Alastor paid no mind as Bambi cracked up laughing, shadow eyes crinkling with a genuine smile and a little accent coming through. _“She’d rip off her slippa and you’d be runnin’ fo’ the hills! Don’t let her height fool ya, either, my dear – Momma could outrun Lucifer himself even in bare feet on the roughest of stone!”_

“Lit- haha! Little Cajun slippin’ out, Al?”

_“Momma was Cajun, but for the radio ya had to speak clearly… I do wish it hadn’t become such a habit… One of the only things I can remember directly about my mother…”_

It was hard to miss the sadness in the Radio Demon’s voice. It was well known that he was very close with his mother, her passing was the catalyst to his true carnage. Alastor had taken a few months off from broadcasting completely, processing his grief, before coming back and doing reports on his own kills.

Those first few days? You could hear the sadness in his voice and how forced the smile was. Bambi scooted off the bed to lay her hand on the vanity mirror. Alastor put his hand against hers, the glass becoming cold to the touch.

“It seems you’re underdressed, good sir,” she said with a small smile of her own, tapping where his cheek was in the mirror.

_“Ah, yes! Thank you, my dear doe!”_ Cajun accent gone, he snapped back into ‘proper’ form. With a deep sigh, he turned to face her as much as he could in the mirror. _“Would it be alright if I came to visit tonight?”_

“Should I save you some left overs? Norman brought some of his stockpiled Venison and I know it’s your favorite!” Bambi knew a deflection when she saw it, but she decided to leave it alone. He’d talk when he wanted to.

_“Oh, sweetheart! If you could be so kind? You know what they say, don’t you?”_

“The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?” she said with a cheeky smile.

_“Now, who is courting who, my dear?”_

“There’s my favorite smile!”


	12. Come on in, Sugar!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asexual Panic!! Times Two!!

_“It’s a date, my Doe!”_

Alastor had said that just before his shadow disappeared in the mirror and all Bambi felt since then was **PANIC!** She knew she was attracted to the demon but a date?

“Alastor doesn’t do dates,” she stated at Norman as she tenderized the venison tenderloin in balsamic vinaigrette and rubbing some fresh rosemary aggressively into the slabs of meat. “It’s probably nothing, right? Right!”

“And yet you’re losing your mind in here while your mother stacks the grill,” Norman simpered behind his beer, the picture of relaxation even with the younger woman pointed at him threateningly with the medieval looking meat tenderizer.

He’d changed into a T-shirt so old, Bambi couldn’t make out the old band on it and some jeans while she had a heart to heart with Alastor. None of them had shoes on since they’d first got into the house, Linda was even barefoot while she put the wood in the barrel grill just outside the kitchen’s open bay windows. The house smelt of apple wood smoke.

If only she wasn’t panicking!

“Ah, I remember when I, too, was in love with an Eldritch horror!” he said, slouching further into his seat, love-struck look on his face. “Oh, the tentacles!”

“Ya know what? No.” Bambi grabbed him by the arm and pushed him towards the sliding glass door out to the back porch with her mother. “Go flirt with mom, you’re banished from my kitchen.”

Bambi cut off his laugh by slamming the door shut and locking it. She pouted at him until he strut over to Linda to help with the grill, looking all too happy with himself. 

"Fuckin' cheeky old man..." 

Bambi stayed in the kitchen preparing the dinner and dessert for the next hour, wrapping the vegetables in tinfoil and putting the venison in a shallow pan to take outside when she was done. Washing her hands, she looked up to check on Linda and Norman only to see that her mother had disappeared. Norman was sipping another beer and looking generally grumpy as he stoked the embers. She wiped her hands, grabbed the plate of sides and venison, unlocking the door and opening it with her pinkie. She stood next to Norm while he glared at part of the herb garden for a good minute before she cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Sorry, Bee." Norman took the items and put them on the wrought iron table next to the barrel grill. "Got distracted."

"By? Glaring pretty hard at the garden," Bambi asked, popping the cap off of a Punch flavored Jack Daniels drink and taking a sip. 

Norman nodded towards his prior focus and Bambi did a double take. 

A tall man with light chestnut skin, dark brown eyes, and a familiar smile was leaning on the fence absolutely charming her mother. Linda was obviously smitten, laughing loudly at whatever joke he was telling with a handful of fresh rosemary in one hand. There was no mistaking who it was, even though he was dressed like Doctor Spencer Reid. Alastor cleaned up nice in his human skin.

"Holy shit. You're jealous!" Bambi crowed, making Norm swat at her with the spatula. 

She danced away with a cackle at the disgruntled blush on his face and made her way towards the pair at the fence. She leaned against the fence a few feet behind Linda, catching Alastor's eye with a smirk before she poked Linda in the middle of her back, making her jump and scream. The older woman whipped around, hand on her chest and a blush reaching just as far.

"You absolute brat!"

"Hi, Momma," Bambi said with a shit-eating grin. "Why don't you go help Norm? He's gonna need that rosemary soon."

Linda sniffed and looked up slightly at and down her nose at Bambi, exaggerated sneer on her face. "You just want this cutie to yourself."

"One hundred percent," she didn't even hesitate, waving the older woman away. "Go on! Go help Norman - he's gwumpy."

Bambi watched her mother huff off to Norman, who glared daggers at Alastor the entire time, with that shit eating grin on her face. She turned her attention to Alastor in time for him tip an imaginary hat the man before turning his attention to her.

“Howdy, sugar. Come to flirt women into early graves? Momma might hit on you if you keep schmoozing her that way, Al.” Bambi gave him a once over, appreciating his lithe body and, to his mercy, missing the light rosing of his cheeks. “Hell, I might!”

“I’ve had to ward off my fair share of Jezebels in my day, little doe; I’ll let her down gently!” Alastor adjusted the small, red tinted circular spectacles on his nose with a small chortle, bringing Bambi’s eyes to a dusting of freckles on his dusky skin, before leaning against the open gate to the yard but not passing the threshold. “Besides, I’ve been stuck with the old boy for the past few months! New entertainment is in order!”

“Don’t harass my mother, please! She’s already insufferable when Norman’s around. Idiots won’t admit they caught the feels,” Bambi whined with a pout. She turned to walk back towards the others, but stopped when she didn’t hear her Patron following. Glancing over her shoulder found Alastor still at the gate, eyes slits in annoyance. “You comin’?”

“I need an invitation, my dear. My own protection spells are keeping me out, so I need to be allowed.”

Turning fully to face him, she crossed her arms and tilted her head at him. “Even after so long? You didn’t mention if you’d redone any of your spells, dolls, sigils, etcetera.”

“No need to! As long as I pray and appease the Loa, the Magick stays strong no matter how long I’ve been gone from this plane,” he said, chest puffed up in pride. “My broadcasts during Slaughter Season weren’t for nothing, after all!”

“Slaughter Season?”

“Think of it as Winter Depression!”

Bambi gave the demon in disguise an exasperated look, knowing all about his killing sprees in Hell after jokingly asking for a bedtime story once, as she stepped forward and grabbed his hand, barely any presser when her fingertips pressed against his palm. She waited patiently for him to relax when he tensed up at the initial touch, then tugged gently.

“Well, here’s your formal invitation, good sir! My home is your home. Quite literally!” She stuck her tongue out at him with a giggle. “I’ll give you a tour to see it all in person!”

With a fond roll of his eyes, Alastor hooked her hand in the crook of her arm and led her back towards the grill. Bambi gently placed her right hand on his bicep to hold his arm to her side, but didn’t get so close she was underfoot. He noticed that her bare footsteps were silent on the grass and her steps were measured to match his so he didn’t have to slow down; oddly considerate of his own aversion to touch – a compromise.

Bambi’s feet were obviously dirty on the bottom, under her fingernails showed evidence of dirt, too, and Alastor noted the new additions of a weeping cherry blossom tree in the yard and some wisteria at the corners of the porch. Several bushes of white roses with patterns of red on their petals were also laid out around the porch, ready to be planted. It looked like blood had been spilled on them!

“Already messing up our hard work, I see!” he said jokingly, pinching one of her cheeks until she whined at him. “The roses are rather lovely, I must admit. Though you are a bit dirty!”

Bambi rubbed her red cheek, sticking her tongue out at him and flashing the two new bars in her tongue, one on each side looking like little silver eyes. She flinched with his hand grabbed her mouth, fingers pressing into her cheeks just enough to keep it open. His brown eyes flashed red a moment and his smile stretched just a little too wide as he inspected the metal for a few moments before he let her go with a pleased hum.

“What the fuck, Alastor!”

“I’ve seen my share of piercings, my dear, but I’ve _never_ seen ones like that!” He rubbed her cheeks with his fingertips to ease the unintentional sting, smile. “I apologize for my rough treatment, little doe.”

Bambi pouted at him while she led him up the porch steps and into the house, muttering about leaving his shoes off at the door and swiping her feet on the tiny carpet. She left him to wander his old home while she checked on a dessert in the fridge, an Oreo Silk Pie made with dark chocolate and raspberry extract. It wasn’t set yet, so she moved it to the freezer drawer and pulled out the left over raspberry chocolate filling to snack on.

“Darling, could you come up here, please?”

Spoon in mouth and bitter treat in hand, Bambi followed Alastor’s voice to the master bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed, smile strained and eyes their normal red as he watched her walk in. She just raised an eyebrow and had another bite of her confectionary.

“What?”

“Come closer, please?”

She shook her head. “You’re lookin’ feral, I’m good.”

“I said, ċ̫̫ͨo̜̞̻͚̺ͨ̏̌̈̓m͇͙̗͇͖̭̪̏ͯ̏͑̋̐̽ḛ̱̯̟̥͙ͅ ͉̗̦͚͇̺̉ͫ͒ͪͬ̚he͈̦͔̻̜̺̎ͭ̔ͩ͂̋r̗͈̥̬̎̐̏̅e̽̀ͦ̓ͧ̚,͖̈́ ̏͂̈̓ͯBa͐ͫmͯͦ͐͛̍b̥͚̥͑̔ͤi͖͉̭̻͍̎͆̈͋͆,” he growled, static suddenly crackling loudly. Bambi put her mousse on the dresser and hesitantly made her way over, acting very much like her skittish namesake. Alastor grabbed her arm and pulled her between his legs with a harsh grip that made her growl at him. “Y̱̪͍͖̜ͨ̾̏̿̇o̳u̹̤͚͔ͪͦͬ̇ ̏ͫͭ͊̋pl͈̼̮̲̃ͥ͆̍aͧ̓̔n̞̠̺̙̻̪̿ͤ̆ͮ̇ͤ ̱̖͚̼̙ͣ̈̒̋̐t̟̭͓͕͕̻̝̒̽̑͐̎ͬ̂ȍ̩̣̖͓͉̩̤ͥ̈́͋ͤ̔͆ ͈̭̑ͧw͙̫̖͓ͯ̀̾̎h͙̜̫̟ͥͣ̈̄ọ̭̺͖ͥ͂̈́̽r̻eͥ̀̐͋̋̚ ̈́̎͗y̯͙̯̱͎̱ͬ̃̐̃͂̊o̱̩̭û͕̲͍̤̜̺̓͑ͪͫ̀r̄ͪs͈̺̯̩̺̠̻̅ͭ͊̉̒̉̂é͂l̳͉̩̞ͅͅf ͉͚̹̹̑͆͐̎o̙̙̦͚̤̎ͮͧ̀̑u̱͚̥̝̫͖͑͑̓ͦ͛̓ẗ͕͎̦͍́ͤ̓͐ ̫̞ŏ͂̍̈̑f̭̪͓͍̫̩̣ͧ̍ͬ̿̈́ͫͫ ̥̥̣͎̰̄́̀̀ͬmȳ̽̃͊ ͈̳̉̍o̼̙̺͇w̭̹̭͍̪͕̽̓̍́̒̾n̉ ̮̭̻̃̄̑h̼͖̺̤͎ͅͅo̞̟̜̯̜̩͗ͪ̀ͪ̓̉me?̖͖̱͓̘͔̿ͦͪ͂̚̚”

Bambi stayed still, feeling his fingers turn into claws. “What the fuck are you talking about? Let me go!”

“D͕̯̥̖̼͘O̸̯̻͛̐N̝̦̻̻͎̭͆͌ͩͨ̈̉'̆̎̿ͦ̆̄ͭT ̧̭̬̲̞ͫ̈ͬ͆Ý̫̫̱̥̳̥͗ͤ͗̏ͨ͡O̟͙͎̦U ̜̦͕̖̹͐̃ͫ͂̎L̿IE̳̠̎̽ ̵̭̣̙͉͍T͕̪͞O̲̻̘͈̟̘̱ͫ̍̉ͧ͆̓̈́ M̗̫̗̣͈̺̝͟E̯̤͓͗͆͗,̌̈́ͪ̌ͥͩ̽ ̟͝L̷̬̻͍̮̾̆̈́͑I̱ͅŢT̯͓͍̗̔͆ͭ̌L̥͇̺̱͚̂͑͛ͩ͑E̯̭̱͂̔̋ ̌ͯͯͣ̄Ḡ̯̹̮̲̪̩̈́ͮ̿ͬͥI̩̖̤͔̔̓̅̂R̯͚͚͎̼͒͗̔͛͂ͤͅL͎̦̣͎̗͇̈́ͫͤ̅̆̎!͓̲̦͢” Alastor roared, hand snapping up to grab her face roughly and claws digging into the plush of her cheeks. His teeth had started reverting to their true state and he looked terrifying to her. “Y̯̰o̟͉̜͓̪̤̿̄ͦ̇̐̃u̢ ̠͉̝͖͓͍̲d̘͕̘̘̱ͭ̿ͪ̌̏a̠̯͔̫̅͋̓͒r̴̭͓̘̠̩͛́ͫ̅̚ḛ̠̲̗̘̇̈́̈́͛ͮ ҉̹͉̤͔̭̼t͉̜o͏ ̻͍̰̮̥̏ͦ͑ͬ̆dͩͭ̊is̠̼̤͇̺̏̓̀͑ͫrěͪ͛̔̐s͕͔̰͎p̡̖ͣe̝͚͔̫͡c̤͚̝͈̙͋̄ͥ̋̈́t̤̗̪̰̐ͩ̃͆ ͗̅ͦ̑m̢̭͔͕̙͖̋̒̉͋ͥe͙̪̣͖͓ ̎͌҉̩͖tͮ͑̉ͥͦ̈́̔͢h̵͈̺͓̭̹̦̓ͦ͋̀̎̅is̝̟̥̱̙̘̟ ̼̜͔͔̺̦̂̎͛̐͂͋w̯͛a̯̯͉͙ͫ̃̃ͣý̺̫̻͈̗͈͙͒͗̓ͮ͐͂͡ ̹̬͖͕̋ͬ̄̏-̮̩̣ͩͭͤ af̫̝̼͉̋ͨ͗͒t͓̰̖̬̔̄́̽ẽŗ̝͙̺̋͋͛ ̈́̆҉̳͖e̯̮̱̻͍̘̍̈̊ͪ̊̒v͎͕̠ẹ͈̯̜̝̖̺͌ͨ̑̾͂ͧ̒r̵͍̯̻̝̳͖ͅy̘̣t̯̝̳̫̂̌̑̇h̯͙͓̖ͨ̈́ͣ̇ĭ͕͡n̉g͔̼̫͈̹ ͉̈́I͐ͥ͗'v͉̭̩̤̣̬͌́ͦ͂̑̈e ̡̣̼̣ͥ̑ͦt̞̰̤a͊ͮ͊ͯ͢uġ͂̇h҉t̴̠ͅ ̸͚̤͇̥̻͚̍͂͊ͬ̇ͥy̠̣̗o͙̭͚̗͙̠͔ͮͦ͐͛̇ͭͧu͓ͥ!̵̲̚ ̴E̻̹̝̿̀̚v̸̻̤̪e͒͋ͨ͛ͯ̓r̹̣͈̜̯̫̱͗ͯ̃̓͗̚̚ÿ̳͓̜̮̭́̃͂͊ͩtͭͅhͧ̓̒͐̾̍ͪỉ̲͠n̛̍g I̡͕͓̤͓̔ͥ͊̂'v̛̞͕̠͖͔͇e ̋ͬͮ̍͏g̰̟͍̳i͍ͨv̵e̛͉̱͇̖͑͊̒̓n͙ ̞̰͍̬͍͈̬yͨo̙̩̩͔̱u!”

Bambi shook in his arms, feeling the static prickling her skin making in the worst possible way. She was genuinely scared of the Radio Demon for the first time since he’d manifested in her room at the brothel. This was the first time she felt like he was a genuine threat to herself.

“I’m not lying to you!”

Alastor turned her around to face the most open part of the room, a large clawed hand around her throat and the other digging his claws into her side, snarling, “T̔̈́ͩh͖̺̱̖̺͈͍e̪͍n̉͑͌ͮͣ̌ ̺̳̩͚̀ͪ̅ͦw̯̠̓̄h̞̬̳͋ͨ̚a̫̩ͦ͌t̝̝͔̺̰̻̑͑ͧͦͥ͑ i̗͆n ẗ͕̰͖́͊̿͐ͅh͇̬̮̳̗ͭ̇̂͌̓e̘ ̩̰͎̘̼̦̖̎͌̓ͩ̓̆̍N̙̘̻͍̟ͅin̥͙͚͑͂ͣe͔̳̜͑ͥͥ ̪͇͎ͩ̆̚C̟͇̯͙̓̓͂ͪi̩͊ŕ̮̯̭̝͍͙͗̽̋͗̅clͬḙ̙̳͔͖̬s ̜͔i̓s t͍̻̝͕̊̿͆̄hͪͧ̏ͣ̒a̻͇͓͔̦̙͐̄͂̍̊̇ͦͅt̑!ͬ̍͂?̼̮͕̪̦̯̌̎̿̑̂̚”

Glacier blue irises landed on the fitness pole she’d just installed and the fear turned to anger. He assumed she’d go right back to sex work over a pole?

“You _dare_ assume that I’d do that to myself, let alone you?” She hated how her voice cracked, how her body shook and tears threatened to fall over being **so fucking angry**.

“I use that to stay fit! It’s called pole _fitness_, it’s _normal_ to do this at home instead of a boring workout!” Bambi ripped his hands off of her body and whipped around to snarl in his face, “I don’t have to go to a digusting fucking gym and get catcalled while I use a machine, instead I can use my own bodyweight to build muscle, Alastor!

“Since I freed myself and got a normal diet, I’ve built up twenty pounds of muscle! I can break pumpkins and watermelons _WITH MY THIGHS_, I can crust a man’s throat in my fist!” She paused to angrily wipe her face and sniff, panting after her yelling fit. “For the first time since I got out of that place, I don’t hate what I look like… But you think…”

_Boy, you done fucked up now,_ Alastor could hear his mother’s disappointed voice in his head as Bambi’s trailed off to nothing.

Huge tears fell relentlessly from her gem-like eyes, each drop like a bullet in his gut as the guilt set in. An insecurity he hadn’t seen in her came to light as she wrapped her arms around herself like she was trying to keep from falling apart. His features returned to their human disguise as he reached out to gently touch her arms, not hesitating to bring her into his lap like she weighed nothing. Bambi curled up as small as she could and he tucked her head under his chin.

They stayed like that for a while, Alastor rubbing her back and humming soothingly as Bambi worked through the maelstrom of negativity he’d just caused. Regret and guilt were things he hadn’t felt since his mother was alive and he swore he could feel her glaring from the picture on the end table. She would’ve tanned his hide something fierce if she’d seen him manhandle Bambi just now, never mind if she’d heard how he spoke to her.

The Radio Demon feared nothing in Hell, not even the Candy Apple Bastard himself, but his mother’s righteous fury when someone treated others than less than human? Oh, she could put God to shame with it and Alastor had been on the receiving end once. And only once.

One Fear!

Bambi finally shifted to return his comforting embrace, fingers digging into his shoulder blades. She squeezed him tight and muttered something into his shirt. Placing one hand on her thigh so she wouldn’t fall when he moved to lean back, he tried to see her face, but she burrowed into his chest like a kitten hiding in a blanket. Her hands kept him from actually moving away, so he rubbed his thumb on her thigh.

“What was that, sweetheart?”

“I said you’re an asshole,” came the muffled reply.

“I do apologize, my dear,” he sighed. “I’m not a fan of how technology has advanced, stuck in my own decade. I tend to forget that more than just that has changed… My mother would’ve slaughtered me if she saw how I’d just treated you, little one… He taught me very few things before he left, but how to hunt and to always treat a woman right were the most important things.

“If nothing else, my father treated her right despite society’s obvious distaste for a white man marrying a black woman; a former slave, no less. Didn’t care about her whippin’ or shackle scars, didn’t care that we had to sit away from the proper seats when we went out, or the dirty looks his own family gave him when I was born… He was proud to have my mother on his arm and never raised a hand to her…”

“But?”

Bambi allowed him to lean back this time, hands dropped to loosely grip his sides and bloodshot eyes looking up imploringly. Alastor sighed and wiped the tear streaks on her cheeks, smile barely there. He cradled her face in his hands, vaguely noting how her pale skin contrasted with his darker shade, and rested his forehead against hers before kissing it lightly.

“That’s a story for another time, little doe… I do hope you can forgive me for my brutish behavior.”

Bambi placed a hand over his and kissed his wrist, resting her lips there and holding it to her face. The slightest blush rose to her cheeks at the action, but she nodded.

“Happens again and I’m giving you a Holy Water enema, though.”

The laugh that burst from Alastor’s mouth was not his usual jovial chuckle, but a deep belly laugh that moved his whole body and almost threw Bambi off his lap. If it weren't for his arm around her waist, she would've been thrown straight to the floor!

His laughter was contagious and soon Bambi joined in, tears of laughter staining both of their cheeks this time. She happened to snort just as Alastor had started to calm down and it set him off again. Just looking at each other seemed to set them off again, stuck in a loop of laughter for a good ten minutes before they finally calmed down enough for Bambi to remember her treat.

"Try it, I think you'll like it!" 

"Darling, you know I don't like sweet things," he tried to decline, but Bambi insisted by straddling his lap.

And pointedly ignoring the thoughts that popped up from the combination of the position and his face being flushed from laughter.

"I used dark chocolate, the kind with eighty percent cocoa in it, and raspberries. Just one bite, please?"

No one could deny her doe eyes and Alastor sighed, letting her feed him a spoonful of the chocolate mousse. 

His eyes lit up when the smooth texture hit his tongue. The bitter chocolate worked amazingly with the tang of the raspberries and before he could stop it, a grown came out of his throat.

A very suggestive noise that set bother of their faces aflame, but Bambi started cackling despite the situation. 

Linda and Norman looked up when the sliding door opened, revealing a red-faced, almost screeching in laughter Bambi over Alastor's shoulder. A few snorts could be heard from behind his back as he strode over to them and placed Bambi in a large hammock chair, where she continued to cackle like an absolute loon, before joining the "older" adults at the iron table.

"Norman, my good chap!, I'd like a divorce! Know any good lawyers?!" he asked and Norman finally noticed the red on his face.

"THAT IS A BAMBI TRADEMARK!"

"No such luck, Al. You're stuck with her."

Linda looked between the men and her daughter, who was hiding her face in her hands and squeaking every time she tried to take a breath. "Am I missing something?"

Alastor heaved a dramatic sigh and took an offered beer while Norman made up some bullshit story about his involvement in his Doe's escape for freedom, though he'd have preferred whiskey. 

Despite the embarrassment, it wasn't so bad. If this is the chaos he had to look forward to in eternity, he could get used to her brand of PDA since she made sure he was always okay with her touch before giving more.

Bambi joined them a few moments after to out the venison on the grill which brought Alastor right back to her side. She smacked his hands with the tongs when he'd try to grab one, threatening to replace the tenderloin with _his own tenderloin_. Alastor helped plate the food when it was done, and the four ate their dinner to the natural sounds of the nearby bayou.

Watching her interact with the other humans made Alastor realize this was the first time he'd seen her genuinely relaxed and happy since their deal was struck. 

He loved hearing her laugh echo across the yard when she smeared a piece of her pie in Norman's face and took off running with the man right on her tail. Her smile was as contagious as his earlier laugh and he found himself laughing with her mother when Norman found the hose and turned it on Bambi in revenge.

With this came an alarming realization that made his cold, black heart seize in his chest when he returned to Hell later that night.

He _cared_ about her in some way. The thought of not hearing her laugh one day was one that triggered the long forgotten feeling of anxiety in his chest. 

He'd have to start training her more now she was in the safest place she could be, so Alastor closed himself in his study to create his macabre lesson plans. 

If he couldn't be there to protect her, Bambi had to be able to protect herself.


	13. Bye-Bye, Babylon!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three birds with one stone....  
Unfortunately...  
[Song for this chapter!](https://youtu.be/fcrJPPv-TpM/)

Sam joined Bambi the first week of February, just a week after Norman had signed the house over, traumatized from a surprise couple hundred mile trip through Alastor’s shadows when she decided to call them.

The first time traveling the abyss was never pleasant.

Bambi had set up a room with several instruments, including a viola, her first night there for her to play and started on teaching her how to use Magick. Alastor only stepped in to help them with self-defense and offensive work since he was larger and stronger than both of them.

Though, he did employ the Immediate Murder Professionals or I.M.P. to track down Kevin, finding him surprisingly close to where Sam’s parents lived, and a few of the pimps that had escaped from the trials with a slap on the wrist. Sam needed her own Hearts and Souls to devour to at least meet on Bambi’s level.

After a surprise visit from David to patch things up with his daughter, they learned he was also filing for a divorce. Karen was too bitter, jaded, from Caleb’s death. She wasn’t the woman he married anymore, he said. He also apologized for not standing up for her more.

He was forgiven, but the repairs would take time.

The second week of February, Karen somehow found Sam’s new phone number and decided to harass the poor girl into an anxiety attack with accusations that Caleb’s death was her fault, she liked what happened to her at the brothel, that she wanted it and actively asked for it.

Bambi and Alastor decided then and there that _enough was **enough.**_

Back in Upstate New York, Karen’s extravagant but lonely dinner was interrupted by four hard knocks to the front door. The echo travelled through the house, but she paid it no mind. The empty house always made noises like that since Caleb died, but David had filed for divorce and left after Samantha decided to live with the rabid harlot that had attacked her in the hospital.

The blonde woman grumbled, throwing her silverware at her plate of beef rib eye covered some kind of thick sauce with black truffles, caviar, some expensive “super green” vegetable that was no different than kale you could grow at home, and threw back her socially incorrect completely full glass of overrated wine like a shot.

“Good riddance,” she muttered bitterly as she prowled towards the ridiculously large door. “That brat shouldn’t’ve been born in the first place… Should’ve stopped at Caleb, then he wouldn’t’ve wasted his time – his life on that little whore!”

Just as her fingertips brushed the antiqued door handle, the lights began to buzz and flicker. She glared up at the malfunctioning chandelier, scowl deepening when the surround sound started playing a fiddle and banjo duet with a bass beat to it.

She’d just had the entire property evaluated for the divorce, making sure that if she lost it, she’d get her money’s worth. Everything was in perfect working order – _what the Hell was going on?_

Another measured four knocks sounded, booming through the entryway like someone was beating the antique knocker within an inch of its life. The bob haired woman curled her lip in annoyance as she looked at the grandfather clock that showed the time of ten thirty at night.

“Who the hell would even bother at this hour?”

Karen ripped open the door only to immediately try slamming it shut when Bambi was seen smiling on the porch, arms clasped behind her back and dressed in a tight fitting, burgundy skew-neck sweater dress and skeleton leggings – she was barefoot despite the snowy weather. The younger woman smirked when Alastor’s shadow planted a hand on the door and held it fast, arm not even shaking when the elder put her whole weight against it.

“Well, _that’s rude! _” she said with a feral grin.

With a tilt of her head, the shadow threw the door open with enough force to send Karen into a very expensive looking table. An equally expensive looking vase fell off at the impact, sending china skittering across the marble floors. The shadow disappeared as Bambi stepped over the threshold with Karen none the wiser, impressed whistle falling from her lips while she spun to take it all in.

“Dayum, sis! Nice place!”

“Get the fuck out of my house!” Karen slipped on some of the china, cutting her hand but not feeling the sting as annoyance and a little fear made the crescent scars on her neck burn.

Bambi rubbed her chin in mock contemplation, tapping her bare foot on the marble before she giggled. “Nah, don’t think I will!”

“I’m calling the police! You’re trespassing!” Karen grabbed the land line that hadn’t fallen, only to hear dial tones as Bambi’s smile grew.

Bolting into the kitchen for her cell, she found the newest Apple to have no service and the screen glitching terribly. She ran to her last line of defense, the home security system, only to find it ripped out of the wall, smoke coming from some sparking wires, and the indicator light red – disarmed and unusable.

Karen felt a cold sweat breakout on her skin as she ran for the front door, ignoring Bambi as she strut into the open dining and kitchen area like she owned it. The bitter woman growled when she tried to grab the handle and the nearby spider plant had wrapped its vines tightly around the handle and hinges, trapping her in. The garage and sliding glass door to the backyard were in similar states, making her scream and bang on the glass before sliding to the floor.

“Ya done?”

Karen’s head whipped around to face where Bambi’s voice had come from, seeing her sat cross-legged on the marble island with her dinner plate in her lap and the steak impaled on the fork. The petit woman ripped a large bite off the rib-eye while she watched Karen have her tantrum, chewing the chunk of meat slowly. Karen’s eyes followed the movement of her throat when she swallowed it and she couldn’t explain the fear that action awakened in her.

“What do you want?”

Bambi didn’t give her a response right away, choosing to finish the plate and enjoy the music. It was the tensest ten minutes of Karen’s life as she watched the young woman pick meat off of the bone delicately with her teeth; it reminded her of watching a big cat strip meat off of a fresh kill. Nothing edible on that plate went to waste.

“Al, could you put this in the sink for me, please?” she asked, hand holding the plate up a bit behind her towards the sink.

Karen opened her mouth to ask who the fuck she was talking to when the tallest man she’d ever seen came _through_ the foliage covered glass door behind her. His smile was unnaturally wide, red from his hair to his suit, deer ears on his head, pace confident and posture relaxed as he strut to Bambi’s side.

“Of course, darling!”

The static that suddenly prickled her skin at his entrance sent her heart rate skyrocketing, tremors started to rack her body. Just the mundane domestic act of putting a dish in the sink, the dapper dresser looked like a predator.

A predator’s eyes were now locked on her as he stood behind Bambi, leaning against the counter to rest his chin on the top of her head. His red eyes seemed to glow as the lids lowered and the smile turned into a sneer.

“Not at all what I expected,” he said with a curl of his lip. “Cowering over a few parlor tricks!”

“Bullies are rarely impressive, Alastor.” Bambi finished picking her teeth and looked down her nose at Karen. “Anyways, let’s get down to business!”

With a snap of her fingers, the last thing Karen saw was Alastor lunge toward her before blackness engulfed her mind.

She awoke a few hours later, slumped against her table and tied to her chair. Her phone next to her was showing a call had just ended and she heard the printer going in the next room. She tried to struggle weakly, just barely making the chair creak before Bambi and Alastor came back into the room.

“Looks good, little one! All the property and items therein plus assets and investments will go to dear Samantha when this wretch dies!” Alastor said with a serene smile. “I’m surprised her lawyer was awake at this hour to make our pet the Executor of the Estate!”

“People pay good money for their lawyers to be at their beck and call, Alastor. She’s apparently been very busy with hers as of late,” Bambi tutted in mock disappointment. “Just make her sign and initial where needed, Al. Then we fax it back and we can have our fun!”

Karen’s rebuttal was swallowed by the frantic scream erupting from her throat when the black and red hand phased into her own and made her do just that. She shrieked and flailed when she felt the tendons move like they were on strings, but the chair and the demon holding her held fast until the last swoop of her signature was done.

“All this fuss over things you can’t even take with you!” Alastor handed the documents to Bambi. “I’ll let you handle the machine, my dear. It’s after my time!”

Karen noticed the black latex gloves on the younger woman’s hands for the first time and she dissolved into tears. She was going to die here. At the hands of a mad woman and whatever the fuck the freak with ears was.

“Alright, that will be finalized by the end of tomorrow and we’ll be all set!” Bambi returned to the room, tossing the gloves into the trash and rubbing her hands together eagerly. “Now, it’s time for lucky number thirteen!”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I don’t even want to see you in Hell, Karen… So I’m going to eat your soul!” Bambi said with a smile, like she’d just been given the best present. “You should be honored; if I don’t like how someone tastes, I don’t swallow, but I’ll make an exception.”

“You’re going to **EAT ME!?**”

“Heavens, you’re slow.”

“I-I can give you money o-or or cars! Anything! I’ll even leave Samantha alone!”

“Took care of that with your will just now. Possession helps _sooooo_ much!” Bambi took a cleaver out of the wood block and made her way over, teeth bared in a sinister grin. “Now, you think that, at _sixteen_, Sam asked to be raped?”

Karen stuttered and sniffled, tears and snot running down her face in panic.

“She fought tooth and nail to get free, you know? She was even tied down in the basement and given the worst of the clients. Pedophiles, mainly, due to how small and childlike she looks. Every day was a fight for her life until I made my move,” Bambi cooed in Karen’s ear before whipping the chair around so she could lean on the arms. “That… _f e a r_… kept us **a l i v e**.

_ **“Can you feel it?”** _ ** **** **

** **“P-please…!” Karen whimpered through the flood of tears, horrified as the knife grazed her cheek and down her neck; she was quaking.** **

** **Bambi’s eyes became mercury neon equalizer bars against blood red sclera while Alastor’s became radio dials. The air filled with static, the banjo and fiddle distorting, as Bambi placed the tip of the knife where her ribs met the sternum.** **

**_“A̷̗͇͎̖̱̔̌̇͐͝͝͝͝r̷̡̢̦͓̜̯̺͎͎͐͌̎̄̈́̃͛͊̚͜e̶͒̒̉̍̌̓̐̕ͅ ̵̫͈̻̻̫̣̘͂̅̉̒̈̓͛̈́͑̒̚͜͝͠͝ͅỹ̴̡̳̺̻̤̻̬̳̻̬̰̳̼̲͚̈́͐̌̑̄ỡ̵̧̧̡̬̳̼͔͔̱̗̳͈͍̖̮̂͆͛͠ū̶̞̞̮̟̫̦̤̒͊͆̅͛͘͝ ̴̴͓̰̮̖̤̝̤̰͝͝ͅͅs̶̡̨̢̗̟̙͐̌̈́͆c̸̨̳̰̘̫̰̫̙̤̪̠͕̲͇͙͛̅̇̈́͛̔̅͂̿̊̈́͋̂ä̴̡̨̨̛̲̗̳̰̻͍̣̟͚̯̫̳͐͂́̈́̋̅̿͜r̷̢̪͎̦̭̗̮̫̮̾̂̄͐͛͒͗̇̕ͅe̴͇͎̱̤̤̠̼͊̌̇̇̾͋̽̅̒͌͝d ̵̧̛̼̻̠͐͂̂̏̆͛́́̆̌́͗̌̏͝ͅn̶̖̥̘̰̞̱̗̍ơ̸̞̟̹̩̎̀̈́̾̊̉͛̈́͆̾́̒͊̚͜w̴̥̲̯̰̖̔̈̒͌̆?”_ **

** ** _ _ ** **

** ** _ _Word of Karen’s murder didn’t get to Sam for a few weeks – Valentine’s Day, ironically – by which she’d been hunting the stray pimps that had gotten away with a slap on the wrist after the bordello trials._ _ ** **

Most of the money went to a charity in Caleb’s name and everything besides the instruments was donated. Sam bought Bambi a beautiful electric violin that lit up with purple and red LEDs when played, but she was ecstatic when Sam brought a baby grand piano into the house. After some tuning, she was playing beautifully like she had before the brothel. Mostly Disney and Tim Burton classics, but Alastor was fond of tickling the ivory keys himself. What was surprising was that Alastor knew how to play a _banjo_, of all things, and play it well. 

It was a normal sight to see Bambi and him playing a duet on the porch or even busking at the flea markets in the Quarter. Children would dance around Bambi as she played and they made a pretty penny for a few hours’ of making strings sing. 

Sam would only play at home, when Alastor wasn’t around. She didn’t like an audience. 

But the night news of Karen’s demise was received, Alastor also had good news for Bambi. “Oh, my darling Doe! Have I told you how I adore you, lately?" Bambi didn’t stop in her playing, fingers flying across the keys as she played a melody from _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ and _Corpse Bride_. “What do you want?” 

"I’m hurt! What makes you think I want something?" 

“You’re arms are draped over me like a feather boa, for one,” she paused to kiss a lean forearm and smirked when goosebumps arose on the chestnut colored skin. “Second, you don’t touch me unless you want something because I’m a touch starved slut!”

“Former slut!”

Bambi disregarded his correction, leaning her head back to look at him upside down. “So, whatcha want?”

Alastor placed his hands on her shoulders, studying the tendons in her arms and hands as she continued to play the bittersweet melody. No sheet music, no headphones to listen from what he could see. Just memory.

“What if I told you… That I have a surprise for you back in New York?”

“I’d ask if you would let me suck your dick, honestly."

The radio feedback and Sam’s shriek of surprise when her amp blew echoed throughout the house made Bambi smirk at him as she played the final note. What she called his Asexual Panic face was a strained smile and too wide eyes, graced with a light dusting of blush only in his human disguise. His normal demonic visage only had his ears stand up a bit straighter.

“Yes, well, none of that is necessary!” Alastor ignored his Doe’s snigger as he continued. “I do indeed have something, quite literally, tied up for you back in New York! Shall we?”

“What about Sam?”

“I heard about your little date on my way down to bitch about blowing my amp… Again!” She gave Alastor the stink-eye before looking at Bambi. “I’ll be okay for a few hours.”

Bambi gasped when they stepped out of the shadows and into the woods, very familiar woods. She recognized the bend in the nearby creek, the tree split by lightening almost a decade before, but the real surprise was _who_ was there.

Kevin was strung up like a pig from the lightning tree. Arms reaching towards the sky, feet just touching the floor – stretched out like a carcass ready to be dressed. His hoodie was covered in sweat stains, boots haphazardly thrown on, a large stain on the front of his jeans, and he was covered in tiny cuts and bruises; probably from trying to escape Alastor. His glasses were missing and Bambi knew for a fact he was blind as a bat without them.

Bambi clapped her hands and jumped in place a few times, an excited squeal leaving her mouth as she hugged Alastor’s arm tightly to her chest and squishing her cheek to his bicep. He chuckled at how excited she was, like a child going to a carnival, and the strung up man jumping at the loud noise. _So skittish!_

“Oh, Alastor! This is the best Valentine’s gift ever!” she gushed, almost vibrating with excitement as she looked up at him.

Her face was flushed with the cold, smile beaming, eyes sparkling like sapphires. Alastor ignored the odd tightening of his chest, the small flush that brushed his cheeks and definitely wasn’t from the cold, cleared his throat and pat her head.

“Don’t thank me yet, my dear! I have another gift for you~”

With a flourish of his hand, a .3030 was brandished in his hands. The steel was pitch black like obsidian and the wood stock was now stained a lovely pattern of red and violet reminding Bambi of a nebula. Alastor held it toward her and his smile matched hers when she recognized her name carved into it. He’d added his own touch of a burnt rendition of a buck skull around it, antlers framing her name tastefully.

The demon in a man’s skin puffed his chest out in pride. “Don’t worry about ammo, little Doe! A little magic on my part and you’re unlimited!”

Bambi giggled deliriously as she took the gun in hand and familiarized herself with it after so many months apart. The firearm felt like an extension of her arm as she looked down the sight right at Kevin. His blue eyes were already wide when he’d seen them appear out of nowhere, but now they were comically large as she took aim. She enjoyed watching him shake for a moment before shooting the rope, dropping him to the ground with his hands still bound.

“I’ll give you a minute’s head start.” When he didn’t move, Bambi landed a shot an inch away from his crotch that grazed the fabric and sang, “You’re wasting time~!”

Kevin scrambled to his feet and tore into the woods, crashing through brush and kicking up dirt. In his panic, he left obvious signs that would make him easy to find. She’d have to be creative.

“For someone who claims to be an ‘Alpha Male,’ he doesn’t live up to his own hype!”

“Known him since I was, like, five. He’s always been like that.” Bambi took off her jacket and tied it around her waist and started off toward the distant crashing while giving Alastor a mischievous grin. “Come on, darling. _Let’s Misbehave~_”

A trunk exploded as a bullet buried into it, barely missing Kevin. He screamed and threw himself to the side before rolling onto his feet and sprinting off in a different direction. Bambi’s laughter echoed around him as yet another bullet ripped through his hood before burying itself into the dirt. The man sobbed as the tug sent him to the forest floor.

On a nearby hill, barely hidden by brambles, Alastor watched his protégé with blatant giddiness. They’d arrived early in the day around eight in the morning, but Bambi had been playing with this sad sack for hours! She’d hold them back just enough to see him while remaining hidden, then pop off a few rounds to spook him into running again.

“I am starting to see the appeal of stalking your prey, sweetheart!”

Bambi focused on awakening a few of the grape vines that littered the floor, a new power she's been developing, to trip up her prey as he finally got to his feet and ran. She then slid down the slope and followed him with her gun up to shoot as she rounded a large stone she’d seen him disappear behind.

Alastor moved to follow at a more leisurely pace until the gun went off and Bambi shrieked. With a few bounds of his long legs, he almost ran her frozen form over on the other side of the boulder. Gun at her side in a loose grip, eyes like saucers, and hand over her mouth in shock as she stared ahead, Bambi was a deer in the headlights.

Alastor placed his hands on her shoulders and gave her a small shake. “Darling, what on earth…?”

“I… am **soooo sorry**!” she whispered, making Alastor finally look in the direction her eyes were locked on.

In front of them was a rather androgynous individual with pink and blue hair. Red was blooming from where Bambi had apparently shot them in the chest, soaking through the heavy jacket, and as they touched it in a daze, they looked up at them with an unimpressed look.

“Dude… Not cool…”

They dropped like a sack of bricks and after a few tense seconds, Alastor burst out laughing. Bambi stood there a moment, focused on the unintentional casualty, before smacking the demon repeatedly. He fended her off weakly, too busy trying to breathe through his laughter to do much about the swatting.

“It’s not funny!” she whined, burying her face in her hands. “This Zigbar soundin’ bitch walked right into my shot! I wasn’t supposed to kill anyone else!”

Alastor just laughed harder at her humiliated face, tears forming in his eyes and a snort escaping with the giggles. He braced his hands on his knees as Bambi whined into her hands. His stomach started to hurt and his face burned from the flush.

Bambi huffed at the hyena before looking at her victim, guilt gnawing at her chest. She never wanted to kill anyone besides who was responsible for the abuse. There wasn’t supposed to be any other red in her ledger or on her hands besides the blood of her captors, but now this poor person’s light had been snuffed out…

What if he was someone’s only family – like Caleb had been Sam’s only true family?

After a moment, she fished around their jacket for their phone and used it to call the police, alerting them to the fact there was a body before hanging up and breaking the phone. She turned them over onto their back and closed their eyes, laying their hands on their stomach and placing their bag at their side. She muttered a quick prayer, then stood up and gave Alastor a nonplussed look when she noticed he was still giggling.

“Are you quite finished?”

Alastor wiped a tear from his eye and fixed his hair as he caught his breath. “I haven’t laughed like that in _decades_, my dear! Thank you!”

Alastor tried to pat her head, but Bambi ran off after Kevin with a growl. He followed with an amused hum and the occasional giggle. As he passed the staged body, he shed his human disguise and snapped away the evidence of Bambi’s involvement.

By the time he’d caught up, Bambi had cornered her prey.

The gun was discarded against a tree with a bloody stock and she was going after Kevin with a flurry of well-placed punches and kicks. By the look of his half swollen face, Alastor assumed his little doe had used the gun like a baseball bat against the man’s face.

He was surprised he was still standing, honestly. Bambi had slugged him in the jaw one night when he’d snuck up on her while she played the piano. The impact had knocked him to the floor and seeing stars for a few moments while she apologized profusely!

He’d raved to Miss Rosie about how proud he was of her during their weekly brunch, but for now, the finale was about to begin and he didn’t want to miss a moment! With a snap of his fingers, the immediate area was soundproofed; can’t have those coppers come snooping and ruin the fun! Another snap and his armchair, a small side table, and a cup of black coffee appeared just in time for him to relax into the cushions. Alastor took a sip of the scalding, bitter liquid with a refreshed sigh and settled in to watch his little Doe cause some carnage.

Kevin sobbed as a kick landed on his open ribs. “I haven’t done shit to you since you escaped! Why can’t you just leave me alone!?”

“Leave you alone?” Bambi seethed out, grabbing the rope around his hands and pulled his face into several devastating punches. “Leave _you **alone**_!?”

She felt bone crack under her knuckles and it made her skin break out in goosebumps. On the last hit, she used the built up momentum to send Kevin flying into a tree a few yards away, shoulder first. The sound of a bone snapping and his yowl of pain released a feral snarl from her lips as she stalked toward him.

“You want me to leave you alone after the literal Hell you put me through? After you would visit me at night to rape me until the Big Bosses forbid it?”

She brought her foot up and stomped on Kevin’s injured shoulder repeatedly as the anger flashed through her body. When she felt the joint finally collapse, the woman landed a solid kick into the ribs she’d hit earlier with her steel toed boots.

Alastor was thankful that this was a private show. His tail was audibly thudding against the upholstery and it felt like he was vibrating with the adrenaline from watching Bambi take her final revenge.

_Her method of hunting was so different from his!_

While he would simply choose anyone unfortunate enough to fall for his eloquent speech and dapper flare, she preferred to stalk her prey - know their habits - before attacking. She fed off their fear, took her time to make it hurt, let them _know_ why, make them suffer like she had.

The Deer Demon had admitted to Rosie that he had almost not approached Bambi at all, due to her occupation, until he’d seen how Kevin and the patrons after Norman had treated her that night.

Yes, she did her “job,” but she didn’t enjoy it by any means. You could hear the venom in her voice when she talked to certain clients. He’d watch her eyes glaze over when a John was doing what he wanted, mind thousands of miles away from her body.

It had reminded him of what his own mother had went through before his father had bought her freedom. Those were stories he wished he’d never heard, but were a sad reality for those of which men claimed dominion.

Watching this tiny thing break every joint her ex possessed, starting with the fingertips, with a smile was invigorating! Bambi went right for the most sensitive spots and gave enough time between each infliction of pain so her prey wouldn’t pass out.

And yet she could be sweet as sugar when she or someone she cared for weren’t in danger.

_Oh, she’d be so much fun in Hell!_

“Alastor?”

Her voice broke him from his reverie, in which he’d missed the breaking of legs, the literal punching in of Kevin’s face, and several major lacerations. Shaking his head at missing part of the show, the Radio Demon stood to strut over to his charge and the bloody, broken, crying mess that was now Kevin. He took a moment to admire her work, hands only stained to the wrists in her prey’s blood, before giving her his full attention.

“Yes, my dear? How can I be of service?” he purred, static sending a different kind of flutter through Bambi’s body, which was promptly ignored for now.

Licking her lips, she smiled at him with eyes dilated from the natural high of the hunt. “I promised you dinner and a show that night, did I not?”

“Yes, indeedy!” Bambi motioned towards Kevin with a flourish and a bow, making him cock his head. “Do you not want his soul for more power?”

“I want **nothing** of him inside of me for as long as my soul exists,” she spat. “But perhaps we could always find him in Hell and have a repeat performance?”

“Oh, hohoho! How _devious_ of you, Darling! Your warped little mind with make eternity very entertaining, indeed!” Alastor booped her on the nose and advanced on the whimpering mass of flesh on the forest floor, rubbing his hands together eagerly and drool trailing down his chin. “I must truly thank you, Bambi, my dear…”

** ** _ _ ** **

** ** _ _ ** **

** ** _ _“I̴̢̝̪̮͇̜̦͎̩̗͈͔̰̝͖̫͒̈͛͒̅̌̅͑̓̈̆̏̾̕͘ͅẗ̶̩̥̺̳̬͚͉͌̀̉͜͝͝ͅ'̶̡̛͔͎͈̺̟̥̠̭̍̉̏̓͐̄̒̉̏̑͘͠s̷̨̨̙̟̥̓ ̷̛̤̲̯͎̠̪̏̽͆́̚͜b̴̡̢͙͓͉͉͈̫̻̯̪͙͍̖̅̿͋̇̒̓̂̅͆̈́̈́̊̚̕͜͠e̶͈̝̩͕͚̦̮̝̐ę̴̢͕̜̘̞̟̗̪̯̥̰̯̆́̉̒̒̇̽͂͛̈́̄̈̓͝͝ņ̵̨͉̱̫̞̱̩̌͛̎͘͜͝ ̷̨̲̼̣̙̯͓̞̪̺̘̌̈́͑͌͛̎̽̊̊̑͝s̶̢̛͔̻̟̺̼͓̭̮͕̠̜͈̭̘͆̋o̶̡̡͚̪̠͖̒ ̴͍̩̘͚̇̾́͛l̶̛͖̼̹̘̠̩̮͖̱̘͕͎̝̟͚͊͌̑̎͌͒̿̄͌̌͂̃̌͜͠o̸̢̡͚̙̮̰̗͙̰̣̳͍̓͜͜n̸̛̙̘͙̪̪̫̘͚̟͗̒̑̆̂̑̈́̋ǧ̷̭̰̻͍̯̖̀̍̂̎̐̎̕͘͜ ̸̛̩͐͌̉̓̾̔̿͆̉͌̿͋̚͝s̴̡̭̣̝̙͇̝͍̹̗̭̲̺͑̓̈́́̇͗̿̈́̾̈̎͑͊̕ͅi̶̢̧̨̛̗̮͇̰̺͓̝̭̹͈̮̞͍̩̿̍̅͐n̴̢̡̗͙̘̥̻̭̬͈͌͂̃́ͅċ̸̪̓̈͑̓̍̓͑̽̂́͑̉͘͝͠ẽ̵͈̞̥̖͍͉̖̩̣̥̮͑͒̈̅̒̎͝ͅ ̷̺̙̣͓̬͉̰̻̠̗͚̂̌͂̎̎̔̈̍͑͆̈́̈̕͝I̵̻͖̜͙͔̝͈̰̼̎͌̍̉̏̔̎͝ͅ ̸̤͙͕̠̤͊͝h̸̨̳̤̪͇̞̼̩̅͆̈́̂͐̿̈́̾́̏̃͝͝ä̸͖̭͖̱́̆̆͝d̸̺͉̝͕͕̻̟͕͖̅̄ ̶̹͇̇͋̎͋ͅf̴̠̳̙̙̪̟̳̖̥͍͍̣͖̾̐̑̿̓̀̓̾͒̉͘̕̚͝ͅṛ̴̹͍̙̈́̌͊ȩ̸̛̯͕̮͉͖̲͖̙̽͆͆͛̃s̵̡̢̨̛̲͓͇̣͎̘̬͔͉̟͚͔͒͐̓̏̾̎̀͗͑͑̂̈́̅̄͠͠h̸̡̗͕̣͍̫̤͕̫̞̼͛̕ ̸̛̛̫͖̫͈̹͕̙̠̲͉̈́͂͒́̂̐̀́͋̑̆͊̑͗͜m̶̝͆͒͊̇̇͆͆̓̿̆̚ë̴̛͙̖́͋͂̍̈́͌̄̀̽̑̾̅̈̚a̶̦̳͎̤̠̬̰̠̗̾̃̽̂͛̋̉̂͜t̷̰͍̩̜̪̲͒̋̓̔̊͌͛̇̒̆!”_ _ ** **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr ~ [Alastor's Bambi](https://alastors-bambi.tumblr.com/)  
Feel free to drop some fanart if you made any!


	14. Roxanne...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chance meeting in the marketplace sets the doe on edge.

“Mèsi pou mizik la, renmen!”

Bambi spun around the open case of her violin as the man tossed in a few bills with a genuine smile and laugh. Moving with the music as she played, she called back, “My pleasure, sir!”

The elderly bookkeeper, Ingrid, which routinely requested some of Bambi’s Sigil Stuffies for her grandchildren, had helped her apply for a permit to sell her wares in the markets. From small trinkets made from bone, feathers, leather, and crystal to Tarot readings and palm readings; Bambi was now an anticipated regular at the weekly market. People lined up around the block for her fresh flowers and herbs while children would wait until she closed the little stall to play the beautiful Violin Sam had bought her.

It was August, now. New Orleans was hot, humid, and crowded – perfect for it all! Bambi could make a couple hundred a day when it was busy; more if Alastor came and played one of his brass or the banjo. If they performed a duet?

They were _mobbed_! Men, women, children, and everyone in-between would flock to watch the two sing, play, and dance! It was an audience Bambi didn’t mind in the least.

Sadly, she was alone today. Alastor was helping Sam with shadow Magick after seeing her use some the other day unintentionally. He was probably using it as time to bother her about the constant change in the color of her hair, which changed weekly after Ingrid had come over to cut the women’s hair as repayment for a life-sized albino alligator stuffie Bambi had made one day.

The memory made her snort as she transferred her tips from the case to the large purse she was using to carry her earnings. Alastor’s face that day had been priceless! But the trip down memory lane was cut short when a shadow was cast over her counter and an ebony hand adorned in gold rings reached toward the little money purse.

People around here were supposed to be _polite_!

With a swift flick of her hand, she buried the hunting knife Alastor had insisted she carry an inch into the table, barely missing the man’s fingers. The sharp movement made the thief let out a loud, angry curse that attracted the attention of the nearby vendors. She plastered a smile on her face and planted her face in her hand to lean towards the would-be petty thief.

“This ain’t a bank, no withdrawals, but is there something I can help you with?”

The man curled his lips at Bambi, looking down his nose at her as he inspected his hand. He tried to posture himself by flexing his arms and looming over her, but she just raised an eyebrow with a tilt of her head.

If she wasn’t so used to Alastor, she would’ve been intimidated. His arms were as thick as her head and he towered over her by at least a foot. He was covered in gold chains and rings with a gold grill in his mouth and a gold topped cane in hand, too. She hated that it actually matched well with his gaudy outfit, despite being an eyesore on the street.

A pink, sleeveless leather trench coat with white fur trim dotted with the same shade of pink hearts on the collar and zebra print around his wrists, bottom hem, and the zipper -which was left open to broadcast that nothing was between ebony skin and the coat. Black leather pants that hung too low to be decent were tucked neatly into black riding boots with heels at least five inches high. To top it off, a satin top hat that matched the coat was sat crooked on his head and gold shades with pink heart lenses.

He also had gold lines that whirled over his chest and only helped his Adonis belt point to something he had obvious pride in.

By the grace of Bastet, this man was as flamboyant as they come. He was loud and he sure as fuck was proud, but she knew this type.

A pimp had just tried to pick her pocket. _What a fuckin’ joke!_

Seeing that she wasn’t backing down, the pimp gave her what was supposed to be a charming smile. He leaned on his cane and lit up a cigar that made Bambi’s nose wrinkle in disgust when he blew a smoke ring in her face. Her nose burned while she refused to sneeze or cough.

“Been watchin’ ya play the square for a while, sweetheart. Got a mighty fine way with yaself,” he _purred_ at her, looking around them rather conspicuously. “Ya beaux not ‘round taday, shawty?”

“Unfortunately.” Bambi yanked her knife out of the table with an exaggerated sigh, sliding it back into the sheath on her forearm with a deliberate slowness. “Busy with the little one at home!”

An obvious threat, but she stayed relaxed and kept eye contact. You don’t look away from a predator.

Dark eyes gave her a once over, lingering on her chest as a sleazy smile spread over his face. “Wouldn’t let my girls be caught dead wearin’ so lil, unless they was workin’.”

Bambi glanced down to the black halter crop top and wrap skirt made of patches of red fabric she had on, various silver bangles on her wrists with matching anklets. Yes, the skirt hung low enough to display the faint line of her hip bones and the dimples of her lower back, but her torso wasn’t exactly sinful.

Before she could say anything, the man grabbed her neck with just enough pressure to keep her still and rubbed his thumb over the skull of her brand with a tsk. “Shame ‘bout this, too. Such an ugly mark on beautiful skin.”

Bambi’s blood boiled. Her hand wrapped around his wrist, thumb digging into the tendons of his wrist with her nail. When he let go with an amused smile, she didn’t notice the blood on her hand as she outright growled at the man.

“**Don’t touch me, you piece of shit!**”

“Kitten’s got spunk!” he laughed while looking at the jagged laceration. “No wonder the Radio Demon likes ya so much.”

Bambi’s face drained of color and the vicious smile faltered slightly at the moniker. Her hair stood on end as she watched his wound heal right before her eyes with a pulse of gold and pink energy, almost looking like smoke. As his smile grew, the woman came to a terrifying realization.

_She had just insulted and assaulted one of the Overlords of Hell; one Alastor was at constant odds with due to his Alliance with his nemesis…_

“…Valentino…” It came out breathier than she would’ve liked and she cursed herself, but the smile returned to normal… even if it was shaky.

“There it is!” the moth chortled, tapping his cane against the cobblestones. “She finally realizes who she fuckin’ with!”

“Yea. A dusty ass bitch.”

Bambi could’ve slapped herself the moment the words came from her mouth; this was not the time to be a smart ass! Sweat broke out on her neck, but her smile showed a little more of her gum line as she spoke.

A declawed Kitten trying to intimidate a Lion, that’s how she felt. Powerless. _She hated it_.

Valentino let out a loud guffaw, hands on his knees as he laughed at the insult. Or the obvious panic in Bambi’s eyes. Both, probably. While he rode out his amusement, she busied herself with packing up the rest of her things to hide the shaking of her hands.

The Overlord had barely got himself under control, wiping tears from his eyes, when Bambi made her way back to where she parked. He slung an arm over her shoulder, ignoring the snarl that ripped through his captive and let her lead him to her car. Taking a drag of his near forgotten cigar, Valentino gave the woman a smooth grin that made her skin crawl.

“Yer a simple gal - I can tell! Just wanna be left alone after the shit ya went through, right? No fusin’, no clients, nothin’,” he rumbled, leaning his face close to hers as he dragged her close. “I can give ya jus’ that, sugar.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Ha-ha! I hear the doubt, but hear me out! Ya dump ya deal wit’ that outdated twink an’ make one wit’ me instead! Ya won’t want for anythin’ yer little black heart desires, lil Bambi,” he drawled. “Jus’ have ta play a little part fo’ me.”

Bambi gave him a deadpan look and a raised eyebrow. “And that is?”

“Nothin; much, baby, jus’ be a cam girl fo’ me! No one would evah touch ya, no in person clients – jus’ ya fine self and the camera! Might have ta show up with me ta meetings wit’ Vox an’ Vel on occasion, but no one touches ya…” He waved the hand holding the cigar noncommittally, smoke curling around them. “’Cept me, of course. I know Alastor can be a handful – pulling people, corpses, too, into dances and unnecessary touches. Truly entitled from his time!”

Bambi’s whole body was wound tighter than a spring by the time he got done with his proposal. It would be the same shit all over again, just no one actually touching her. Paraded around like a prize, stuck in a room while randos watched her get off.

“I can see the gears turnin’, baby. I’ll letcha think ‘bout it!” Valentino suddenly spun her around, grabbing a hand to kiss it before she could snatch it away. "Ya know where to find me when ya die, Sugar!"

In a puff of sparkling pink and gold smoke, Valentino was gone. Bambi coughed and spluttered, waving the smoke away from her face violently. Her eyes darted around to make sure he was gone, even checking under the Jeep and the back seat.

Her skin was crawling, like she needed a shower... And not just because she was singing and dancing for money. Like she was back at the brothel...

Pulling into the driveway, Alastor was sitting at the base of the tree while Sam was using a new swing that Alastor had apparently installed. It was a wide plank swing, all three of them could fit on there probably, and Sam was smiling for the first time since her hair was dyed. Alastor looked at peace himself as he read in the shade, smile small and eyes half lidded.

"They don't have to know..." she sighed, turning the Jeep off and getting out. Both of them lit up, finally noticing her and coming to help unload the vehicle.

"You look a bit tired, Darling. Are you alright?"

"I just need a short nap." Bambi gave her patron a small smile and shook her head. "Just some difficult tourists. Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Hmm..." Alastor studied her a moment before shrugging and taking the unsold sachets inside. "Be that as it may, I'll handle dinner! I already have desserts done with Samantha's help!"

Bambi watched them go inside and rubbed her arms against a sudden chill in the humid air.

"...They don't need to know... He can't hurt me..."


	15. What is God to a Nonbeliever?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loyalty is the Downfall of Good Men

All Hallows Eve was upon them and the night was cruel.

A mob of people, presumably family and friends of the pimps and guards they had killed, had stormed the house. Molotovs broke through the windows, setting the home ablaze and forcing the women out and right into the mob. Bambi lashed out with her fists to try and keep clawing hands away, but there were too many…

“Bambi! Help me!”

Sam was ripped from Bambi’s arms and dragged towards the tree out front, wrists bound and gagged along the way. A long barrel gun was forced against the older woman’s throat as she was restrained, keeping her teeth from ripping into anyone.

Something had stopped their Magick from being used. Bambi tried in vain to summon shadows, roots, vines – anything to help her friend, but nothing was working! She couldn’t feel the well inside that Alastor had taught her about, she couldn’t even feel his influence!

“No! Get away from her!” She flailed until she was thrown on the ground, only able to watch. “_Alastor, please! Help us!_”

Bambi’s shriek was ignored as a noose was looped around Sam’s neck. She struggled under her captors’ boot and snarled as the mob started hoisting the younger woman into the air with the same rope the swing was on.

Sam’s eyes were wide in panic, reflecting the flames that engulfed their home. The heat was suffocating, but nothing compared to the rope as it continued to tighten. Green eyes met frantic blue as she squirmed to try and get away even as her feet left the ground.

“When you whores are dead, we’ll have a lil fun witcha. Can’t risk anything with those teeth and claws, can we, chere?” he chuckled and Bambi roared and thrashed in his hold, panic and rage pulsing through her veins while tears flowed like rivers from her eyes. “No point in callin’ fo’ anyone to help y’all!”

_I can’t get in! They’ve poured a circle of salt around the property! My only way in would be if it was broken, my dear, and even then, I could only promise a quick end…_ his voice trailed off. _They’re using some talismans, I can’t attack them!_

“Sam, I’m sorry!” she sobbed as she watched Sam struggle in the air. “I’m so fucking sorry!”

It was going on five minutes and Sam was only just turning blue. She was suffering and, while Bambi had wanted them to have a few years of peace, those plans were now obsolete. Her captor moved toward the tree to watch Sam’s last moments of horror, giving Bambi the opening to get to the salt circle she could now see just beyond their fence.

Shuffling over on her knees, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, she swiped her hands through the circle until the line was broken. She sighed as Alastor’s familiar presence flooded through her and winced when she heard Sam’s neck finally snap in the rope, their bond fading until it was just a soft hum in the back of her mind.

_I’m here, my Darlings… I am here…_

“You fuckin’ bitch!” A hand suddenly fisted in her hair and yanked Bambi back toward the tree. “Next, we’ll burn you alive for all tha’ you done and that Voodoo shit you been doin’ to the innocent people of Naw’Leans!”

She renewed her struggle, kicking and snarling at them like an animal. She was held against the and bound to it by several people, Sam’s body hanging in front of her like some fucked up piñata. They piled bundles of wood from their vehicles around her feet.

The ringleader, Kevin’s own mother, stepped forward and lit her zippo. “Any last words, witch?”

Giggling reached her ears as she got closer before Bambi erupted in maniac laughter. Her body shook and her lungs screamed in protest, but she laughed in their faces with a too-wide smile. It sent the mob into shock as they watched her lose that last shred of sanity. When she finished, Bambi locked gazes with woman and sighed.

“One day, someone will ask why I killed them. Someone will ask where the bodies are. Do you want the answer, Candy? Do you want to know where your precious baby boy is?”

Candy slapped her, prompting more giggles. “Tell me where he is so I can put him to rest, you whore!”

“There’s nothing left, you fucking idiot!” Bambi shook her head and spit blood in Candy’s face, relishing the looks of disgust on their faces. “Andrew, Karen, the other guards – I fucking **ATE. THEM. ALIVE!** I _ devoured_ their hearts and butchered them like cattle. It’s better than they deserve!”

“But where is my son’s body!?”

“He was a tribute to the demon I sold my Soul to, Candy! We let your little rapist piece of shit die so I could find him and torture him in Hell until he no longer amuses me!”

As she laughed at her fury, Candy threw the lighter onto the wood, flames exploding around Bambi and scorching her skin. The laughter soon turned into screams of pain as the fire began to sear her body. It wasn’t long before Bambi felt a ghost of Alastor’s spectral hands on her neck and it snapped, her world turning black.

_I’m sorry, sweetheart… I could not protect you this time… Samantha and I will be waiting for you…_

On the year anniversary of their escape, the women were caught again and unjustly tried for their tide of vengeance. The night they had planned to be full of harmless tricks, sweet treats, and Magick was now a night of terror and death…

* * *

When her eyes fluttered open, instead of the crimson sky and Pentagram Alastor had regaled to her, Bambi was blinded by sunshine. Blinking away the discomfort, she was greeted with white, fluffy clouds, the bluest sky she’d ever seen, and was laying on something softer than a goose down comforter. The air smelled fresh and clean and, as she stood up, she noticed there was no mark of filth or smell of decay anywhere.

She slowly swiveled to take in her surroundings in confusion. Looking down at herself, she was very much in the same clothes she’d died in, just repaired from the damage of the fire and the mob. No cuts or bruises from the beating she was given, no horrific burns from the fire, no burning in her lungs from smoke inhalation.

She was supposed to be covered with fur in various shades of purple, not still human. She couldn’t _feel_ Alastor or Sam like she used to, either. The two Bonds were stretched to the faintest static humming in the back of her mind.

This wasn’t the Fall her Patron had described. Where was Pentagram City? The gore from the recent Extermination? And where was Alastor and Sam? More importantly…

“Where the fuck am I…”

Bambi didn’t notice the presence that made their way to her until their chipper voice chimed loudly in her ear, “Hi, there!”

With a yelp, she jumped away from them, tripping on her skirt and falling back into the fluffy cocoon of clouds. An innocent giggle was heard before she was pulled out, hands dusting off bits of cloud that had stuck to her. The person moved behind her and Bambi turned to keep them in her line of sight only to freeze as unadulterated panic swept through her body.

This person, in all their blue-eyed, copper haired, androgynous glory had six sets of wings on their back and a dagger-like weapon on their hip.

Despite the smile on their face and nonthreatening demeanor, Bambi was on edge. They reached to touch her back and she moved to keep them away, but movement from her back set her off balance and almost back into the clouds. Taking another look behind her, Bambi saw two snow-white wings coming from her own back.

“What… the actual… Fuck!?”

“Whoa, there! No reason to get upset,” they said with a soft chuckle. They grabbed her bicep lightly and started gently leading her towards a set of golden gates she hadn’t noticed before. “You’re safe now! No harm will come to you here!”

“I-I don’t… There’s been a mistake!” she stammered urgently, weakly trying to tug her arm out of their grip. “I don’t belong here!”

“Originally, no. No, you did not! But you’ve been given a rare gift! A ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, if you will!” The archangel blinded her with another smile and kept their grip firm. “I’m Gabriel, by the way, and you’ve done the Lord a great Service, Bambi!”

“I – How?” Swallowing the clichéd questioning of how they knew her name, she dug her heels into the… ground?... beneath her as they passed a line of people waiting to get into the Gate. “You don’t understand; I _killed_ people. I _ate them_! **I LIKED IT!**”

“Yes, yes. We’re all aware of your personal Crusades, Bambi, but you’ve alerted us to a true danger to Heaven!” They waved her off with a lighthearted scoff, ignorant to the panic she was displaying. They paused halfway up the line and turned to her, mile wide smile and eyes twinkling. “Do you remember the person with blue and pink hair?”

Bambi blushed, looking at her feet in shame. “The person I shot on accident?”

“They were a _true Immortal_,” Gabriel whispered, grabbed her shoulders and shaking her lightly in his excitement. “The Angel of Death went to collect their Soul and their body had completely regenerated and they were perfectly alive!”

Bambi’s eyes flit between Gabriel’s face and their hands on her shoulders before leveling him with a cautious look. “Okaaaay?”

“Because of _you_, my dear girl, the Lord was alerted to this most egregious Violation and the Sinner was brought before her!” Gabriel was way too excited about this, in her opinion. Their blue eyes were just a fraction too crazed for her to be comfortable. “They cried and said they didn’t know how they gained Immortality, but we all knew it was a lie, so they were ‘yote,’ as you say, into Hell for their Crimes!”

“Y’all just… Tossed someone into Hell for _allegedly_ spitting in God’s eye?” she deadpanned. “And God’s a Woman? Decent, I guess…”

“Of course they were guilty, silly girl! No human even looks for a way to cheat Death unless they’re a Sinner, even if their tears were most convincing… Your eager trigger finger had earned you a place in Heaven by Her side!” Gabriel let her go to present the Pearly Gates like some kind of prize. “That deal you made is all null and void, now! An eternity of Paradise awaits you!”

The Archangel was bouncing on the balls of their feet by the end of their rant and looming over Bambi’s much shorter form. So excited by the fact that they had eternally damned someone without all the facts of the situation. Heaven doesn’t see all after all.

“But I promised…”

“Nonsense! He was a Demon, a murderer, who took advantage of you in your time of need! He’s not worth such loyalty. Now, come! Time to get registered!”

Gabriel grabbed her wrist and began to drag her towards the Gates. Bambi’s protests fell on deaf ears all around her as her struggling became more desperate the closer they got. Every Soul around her was smiling despite her flailing.

She’d had _enough_.

With a growl, Bambi ripped her arm away from Gabriel. Turning back toward where they’d come from, she made a break for what she believed was the edge of the fluffy platform. Multiple Souls from the line tried to grab her, believing she was making a mistake, but she lashed out at them.

The first one to get close enough had part of their arm gouged by her nails. The next would have a broken jaw for their Eternity. Gabriel didn’t reach her until she had ripped the throat out of another, swallowing the flesh and baring her teeth at them.

“I̴͚͒.̴̺ ̷̟͑Ḓ̶̏O̷̞ ̸͓͊N̵̯͆O̵͍͗Ţ̷͐.̷̣͂ ̸̰́B̵̫̌Ḙ̸̈́L̷̡̾O̸̤͋N̵̮͝G̴͇̊ ̷͚͌H̶̞Ĕ̴̬R̵̖̄Ḛ̶̍!̶̛̯” she seethed, covered in blood that she didn’t know could exist in Heaven.

Gabriel’s reply was barreling into her body and holding her above the Abyss she knew led to Hell. To Sam… To Alastor.

“You Forsake the Gift She has given for an Eternity of Suffering?”

“I Forsake Her Gift of _hypocrisy_” she hissed.

Bambi flapped her wings in her struggle while driving her fist into the outside of Gabriel’s elbow, shattering it as it bent the wrong way. They dropped her in surprise, not an ounce of pain marring their face, and watched her fall into the blackness below. 

* * *

She didn't extend her wings to slow the decent or even try to fly. Bambi just closed her eyes and embraced her second time burning alive as she fell. The fire started from within and consumed her entire body in short order. 

She screamed when the wings burned to ash, her spine extended, and skull changed shape. Nail beds were forcibly replaced with claws, canines and incisors grew longer and sharper. It was like she was being shattered repeatedly for hours until she made impact with the streets of Hell.

Bambi wheezed, rib cage knitting itself together from whatever bullshit it had been through. Ears ringing and eyesight blurry, she tried to look around, but it was all like static until she locked eyes with Sam. She knew it was Sam, even if her eyes were neon green on black sclera. Even with her face covered in tan fur.

Bambi reached out a shaky hand to cup her friend's cheek with a weak smile. "Hi... Sorry I'm late..."

"Holy shit! You're finally here!" Sam's smile was watery as tears gathered in her eyes. "Al... I have to get Alastor!"

"I'm so tired, Sam..." Bambi felt herself fading a bit, eyelids drooping. She was exhausted. "I'm just... Just gonna rest my eyes..."

"No! Bambi, stay awake until that Strawberry Bastard gets here!"

Bambi only had the energy to wonder why Sam was calling Alastor a Strawberry before she fell asleep. She wouldn't wake up for another week, but she didn't realize that it had already been almost a month since she died before she Fell.

She was, apparently, fashionably late to her own funeral.


	16. Rise and Shine, Sleepin' Beauty!

“Come now, Darling – you’re being ridiculous!”

“No.”

“Bambi, please. Miss Rosie is a dear friend of mine! She won’t bite – it’s impolite!” Alastor paused as a laughtrack played for his unintentional rhyme, tapping his chin thoughtfully a moment. “The Roselings might, though…”

“Don’t care.”

“Think of it as… As a field trip, my dear!”

“Does not pass the Vibe Check.”

“What does that even _mean_?” Alastor sighed in exasperation, finally letting go of the duvet his protégé had buried herself in and pinched the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache coming on as she rolled around in bed until she resembled a caterpillar. “Chè mwen, _really_! You’ve finally awoken from your comatose state – I’ll _not_ tolerate your moping!”

The Radio Demon had been trying to get Bambi out of bed for the better part of an hour with little success. She had joined them for breakfast, but once Alastor mentioned Miss Rosie’s Emporium, her face flushed and she returned to her bed, claiming to need more beauty sleep.

Which was absolutely preposterous in his mind!

Bambi had been comatose for the better part of a week and couldn’t recall what had happened between her Death and Fall into Hell. Alastor assumed she had been stuck in Purgatory due to the righteous nature of her killing spree while her destination was determined.

It reminded him of the stories his Father used to tell; stories of corrupt Sin Eater Priests that would, quite literally, devour the Sinners in their Churches and take their Sins unto themselves so their Flock could ascend to Heaven. They were supposed to just have a meal of bread and ale that had been sat on the deceased’s body to symbolically soak up their Sins.

Noble, either way, but often in vain as the cannibal Sin Eaters were always met by their wayward Sheep upon their arrival in Hell according to Miss Rosie. There were even Crusaders in Hell! Those who had pillaged, slain, and raped those whose beliefs differed from their own!

Murder is Murder in the eyes of the Lord, at least!

At first, he’d tried to bribe the Doe with sweets, some of marijuana, and even his coveted Cajun BBQ for dinner, but they failed. Next, he’d tried to use physical force. Picking her up resulted in flailing hard enough to make him stumble until he dropped her, she had dug her new claws into the wood headboard when he yanked on her ankles to literally drag her out of bed, and now she’d tangled herself so well in the Alaska King sized blankets, his claws had torn through the fabric when he tried to yank the sheet off.

“I told you she wouldn’t want to go if you told her where you’re going.”

“Ti chat, I’m not in the mood for your sass today~!” he sang, smile stressed and eyes flickering in and out of radio dials as he booped her nose just a tad too hard. He took a deep breath and turned on the charm. “It’s just a little tea party! She’s been all aflutter to meet you, my Sweet!”

“Who happens to be the Overlord of Fashion and wants to treat her like a Furry-Bait Barbie,” Sam sniggered, looking like the cat that caught the canary when Alastor’s neck literally snapped to loom over her.

**“Ṡ̵͎̺̩̖͕ä̷͎̤̯͉̜̼̞́̈̔ͅm̷͍̳̅͠a̴͇̰̋͊͝͝ͅn̵͔̦̱̫͖̓͋t̷̪̦̱̮̗͙̻̠̗̿͐̃̄̓̽̕ḧ̸̛̪͈̙̺͎͉̹́̾͛̾a̸̢̜̺̤̖̽̐͊̓̈́̈͌͌͝!̵̗̜̦͉̮̥͉̳̗̏̂̏̈̕̕”**

“I no longer wish to Adult,” came the Demoness’ muffled reply, crimson eyes barely peeking from the goose-demon down filled comforter. “I wish to remain a furry burrito. If you need me, I’ll be in my fluff tortilla.”

Alastor straightened himself out with bone rattling sigh, patting imaginary dust and wrinkles off his suit. After taking a few moments to quell the urge to murder, he unceremoniously threw the ‘fluff tortilla’ over his shoulder and summoned his microphone. Bambi shrieked in indignation and wriggled in his hold, but his arm was an iron bar against the back of her knees.

“Time to go, Darlings!” he chirped, suddenly more jovial.

“Put me down, Alastor! I don’t want to go!” the doe snarled, head poking out from the burrito. “Sam! Help me!”

“No can do, babe!” The small Weasel demoness crossed her arms over her chest, tan fur standing out over the Lolita style dress. “I went through this when I arrived a month ago; now it’s your turn!”

Bambi went limp and resigned herself to watching her hair sway at Alastor’s knees as he marched them across town. “This family is a fucking nightmare…”

* * *

“Rosie, my dear! How are you?” Alastor held one of the Overlord’s hands as they kissed cheeks. “Sorry for our tardiness. Kids these days, you know. So lazy - Ah!”

Bambi growled around the mouthful of ass cheek she’d bitten at his jab, only letting go when Alastor’s claws dug warningly into the thigh in his grasp. Sam openly giggled when she saw the perfect holes her friend’s canines left that went right through the suit jacket, pants, and underwear to show the warm gray skin.

“Alastor, it’s no bother!” Rosie waved him off, pointing to one of the stands in front of a bunch of mirrors. “Just put her there and we can start taking measurements before tea!”

Alastor gently deposited Bambi on the stand, giving her a menacing smile while she grinned at him innocently. She kept the blanket wound tightly around herself, despite the tugging of the Roselings and Alastor. She did take a saucer and teacup when offered, humming in pleasant surprise at the red, fruity tea inside.

“The tea is delicious, Madame Rosie.” Bambi bowed her head politely at the posh Victorian Era Overlord. “Alastor has told me much about you. Tis a pleasure.”

“So polite! Little fawn, the pleasure is all mine!” Rosie clapped her hands in delight, black eyes almost sparkling while Alastor gave Bambi a thousand yard stare. “Though, it looks as if you gave our boy some trouble this morning~!”

“I admit, I was not ready to leave the house today, my Lady,” Bambi simpered, playing into the damsel role with a slight droop to her ears. “He dragged me right out of bed with no warning. I simply had no time to prepare for our departure!”

The Radio Demon paused as he took his seat at the table after pushing Sam in. “I told you over breakfast not an hour beforehand!”

“Alastor, hush now!” Rosie paid no mind to the Buck’s indignant spluttering. “Any requests before I start?”

“I refuse to dress like a flapper. I’d prefer pants, too, but I like fabrics that breathe,” she replied, gaze flicking to Alastor as she finished her tea, smirk hiding behind the painted ceramic. “The less I’m wearing, the better for measurements, right?”

“That’s correct, dear,” Rosie cooed while readying her measuring tape.

Bambi handed the now empty cup to a passing Roseling, then promptly dropped the blanket. A few feathers from various rips flew up as it pooled on the floor, but the Caribou only smiled at Rosie as they settled. Sam side-eyed Alastor with a smirk and he flat out dropped his cup and saucer with a crash while radio feedback ripped through the boutique.

Bambi’s only attire was a smile. _Only her smile._

“Oh, that’s perfect! Your markings are stunning, by the way, little Fawn!” Once again, Miss Rosie paid her other guests no mind as she set to work taking measurements almost immediately. “But, usually, you’d undress in one of the changing rooms.”

“Like I said,” she sighed, looking at Alastor through the corner of her eye. “I had no time to get ready.”

Alastor finally found his voice when his face matched his hair, static hiding the way it cracked. “Why in Lucifer’s name are you stark naked!? Have you gone mad!?”

“We’re all mad here,” she retorted. Sam’s face was buried in her arms as she tried to keep her giggling down to a dull roar while Alastor’s eye twitched in annoyance. “Besides, I’m not _technically_ naked; I’m covered in fur.”

“Damn Jezebel, ya sure as Hell ain’t fully dressed!”

“But Al,” she purred, turning to face him fully as Rosie helped her into a black silk robe and wiggled her tail through its appropriate cutout. “_I’m smiling!_”

Some gum was revealed in a snarl at Bambi’s cheeky behavior. If it was any other Overlord, that would’ve been the embarrassment of the century! Rosie worked in this industry so nudity wasn’t new to her, but if it had been one of the three Vs? He fought back a growl at the mere thought of them seeing her in such a state.

Rosie pat his arm as she took her seat on his right, daintily sipping her tea and nibbling on a biscuit. Bambi sat to his left and took another cup of the fruity tea, giving Alastor a coy look all the while.

“Now, little Fawn, I have _several_ ideas for you already! You have quite the unique color palette, so you’re a bit of a challenge, but your eyes and lovely locks allow us some leeway for reds. And the little spots on your eyes and cheeks – oh!” Rosie gushed, obsidian eyes sparkling like a night sky in excitement as she reached over the small table to lightly pinch the Doe’s cheeks. “Samantha was relatively easy with her tan fur, but her hair we had to do _just right_ so the warm dye didn’t clash with her eyes –”

Bambi was smiling at the Victorian Overlord with a light blush dusting her cheeks as she ranted, not used to the seemingly genuine compliments, when Alastor lightly tugged her to his side. His claws just barely caught on the silk robe, but the points could be felt against her fur. He leaned close enough for his breath to tickle her ear.

“We _will_ be talking about your behavior later, Darling,” he murmured just loud enough for her to hear, a threat coating his voice. “A performance like that could give people the wrong idea.”

Bambi didn’t drop her smile as she nodded and lightly squeezed the hand on her waist to show that she understood. He let up on the pressure of his claws, but kept his hand on her while commenting on Rosie’s ideas every so often.

He was right, of course, and Bambi had to force her ears not to droop in a bit of shame.

She was lucky this time since Miss Rosie was his ally and was already smitten with her, apparently. Alastor had told her that while Hell was, ironically, Heaven for the depraved with little to no consequences for your behavior, there were still rules and etiquette that had to be followed; _especially_ if you were low on the Totem Pole or a new arrival.

He had their gratitude for easing their painful deaths and their respect for all that he’d done for them before and after their Fall, but their affections could be seen as immature and inappropriate to anyone on the outside looking in.

Bambi could only imagine what would happen if this Vox character heard the girls’ flippant replies to Alastor and the obnoxious slang from the twenties and thirties. They had to act like good little peons while in public, mask of servitude in place at all times outside Alastor’s Bayou. After all…

The World is a Stage and the Stage is a _World of Entertainment._

* * *

As Miss Rosie worked her Magick – and racked up quite the bill on his tab if the chiffon and silk Samantha was offering was any indication – Alastor took the time to ruminate on what had brought him to this curious yet relaxed scene in his Unlife.

Bambi and even young Samantha had been quick to accept the violence of his personal Creed, both eager to get their revenge. Bambi more so than Samantha as she was genuinely grateful, not just for his help, but his presence. Eternal Servitude in exchange for safety had awarded her the unexpected boon of his companionship and he’d gained an inexplicable feeling of peace in the two’s presence.

When they weren’t sassing or harassing him, of course.

The rage at their own circumstances had stoked the pyres their Innocence had been destroyed upon was a perfect foundation to make them devoted Puppets in his hands, but they both refused to be controlled again. His influence was subtle, yet noticeable, and his girls were harder to manipulate with their jaded nature.

They were the challenge he’d been longing for in recent decades! With the right tutoring, both could be near his equal and valuable allies much like Miss Rosie.

While teaching them about life in Hell and what to expect, Alastor had learned they both had their own set of morals that complimented his own. Give respect until given a reason not to, don’t waste time on things that “do not spark joy,” stay your Wrath from Innocents. All things he would’ve followed in life right down to the prey he’d chose to hunt.

Alastor had also noticed that both women had affinities for the oddest of things.

Alongside her greenhouse, singing, “pole fitness,” and various forms of self-defense that she took upon herself to learn, Bambi had already dabbled heavily into the occult and liked to watch serial killer documentaries to relax. She’d also come back from long walks in the bayou and forest with various bones to make into wind chimes, jewelry, and the odd weapon.

Samantha was stunted in her emotional development due to how young she’d been while taken, so many things that were normal to Bambi were lost on her. Though music – art in general, really – had been the way to make her open up to both of them.

The youngest would sit next to Bambi as she lost herself to the piano or play in harmony on her own violin or help her carve out the bones, glass, wood and other organics needed for her wares. She’d also sit in with him as he played the myriad of instruments he had mastered, but very rarely joined in duet, and her eyes lit up when he mentioned the Furby Organ he’d made himself in Hell.

_“Now I’m not fond of modern technology, mind you, but when I heard how absolutely cursed these adorable darlings are, I just had to do something about it!” he’d said, enthusiastically sketching out what the instrument looked like with charcoal Samantha had ferreted from Bambi’s stash._

_Alastor even had a book made of the hides of pastel colored Demons to keep the sheet music in that he affectionately called The Furbinomikon. Samantha had been unaffected by the fact he processed other Sinners for crafting materials_

_“The wiring was exhausting to learn, but when you have an Eternity, what’s a few weeks? I just wish I could figure out how to incorporate the damn thing into my Broadcasts…”_

_“Well, Al, I can think of a few ways.” Sam smirked conspiratorially, eyes alight with mischief. “Bambi is terrified of them, so if she misbehaves…”_

_“It seems you have a penchant for chaos,” he mused before his expression mirroring her own. “I love how your demented little mind works, Dear One!”_

Bambi spent weeks undoing the damage done by the brothel and helping the younger woman to enjoy life again. It was a bit like homeschool while the older woman got her up to date on events, science, and pop-culture. Alastor had been floored when he’d arrived around eight am to a _very_ in depth Sex Education lesson that included variations in anatomy, fetishes, and the LGBTQA+.

There were some terms he’d wanted to ask about, but he didn’t want to interrupt the lesson and made a note to inquire his Doe about them later while he puttered about the home to keep busy. Samantha needed those lessons, he knew, to add another layer of protection in Hell.

Rapists were common in Lucifer’s domain, but they were by no means welcome in many crowds. 

That was also the day they heard Samantha laugh for the first time, six months after their Liberation. The charming sound even twisted his own heart in the most pleasant way; even if it was over his unintentional comment of “Oh, I am _very_ proportional to my height, Little Doe” when Bambi was talking about the big hands/feet stereotype.

Bambi had stared at him with an unreadable expression before walking over to the sink where he was rinsing vegetables for their dinner and spraying him with the nozzle screaming, “DON’T BE FUCKING NASTY!”

Samantha’s full body laugh at Alastor’s pathetic fawn-like bleat when getting dowsed with ice cold water had frozen them both in place. It took almost ten minutes for her to calm down enough to breathe normally, yet in that time Bambi had cried tears of happiness.

They were both such caring creatures if you weren’t on their bad sides. An outsider would think they hadn’t murdered twenty-three grown men and devoured twenty-two of them.

That day, Alastor had realized they reminded him of his Mother, rising above their circumstances and oppressors, and that is what endeared him to them.

They had more in common than he’d care to admit, even to himself. Caring for others was giving your enemies a way to exploit you, never mind opening yourself up to be shattered if there was ever a betrayal. Just the thought made Alastor’s blood boil.

But at the same time, seeing his mark on Bambi’s neck made his little black heart stutter, not that he’d tell anyone that. Even while she was human, seeing the scar and occasionally recutting it had excited him. She trusted him not to just rip her throat out and, _oh, how strong the temptation was_ after he’d first tasted her blood! It reminded him of that dessert she’d “forced” him to eat – decadent and rich like the bitter chocolate.

Said brand had changed from just a scar to a full color venture. The elk skull was as white as snow and still had the tip of the snout kissing her sternum, the microphone was a reflection of the one in the Radio Demon’s hands, and the antlers stained black with the furthest tines cradling the corners of her jaw.

And she wore it with pride! Bambi had walked with chin held high, spine straight, steps confident as she walked among even the darkest alleys of the Crescent City and she continued to here in Hell.

His little Doe was a Hunter in her own right and, as he sipped his black coffee, Alastor knew that both of his charges would make the afterlife very entertaining from now on.

* * *

“Of all the outfits you could choose from, you chose **that** to wear?”

“I’ve got shorts on underneath,” Bambi replied, grabbing the pole in front of her while Miss Rosie laced and tightened the underbust corset that cinched the outfit to her waist. “Nothing nasty is showing, Sam.”

The bright red tunic dress matched Alastor’s and reached her ankles with slits up each side to show off her legs. Black shorts underneath almost blended in with the dark purple stocking-like marks she bore and the platform wedges she’d chosen made her legs look even longer. They added four inches of height, but the top of her head still only reached Alastor’s shoulder.

Looking in the mirror, Bambi adored and fawned at her reflection. She loved the outfit from the wide neckline right down to the scale-like beads on the top of the wedges. Alastor had let her pick it out while Sam complained that he’d dressed her like a doll, which he had. Bambi’s outfit catered much more to her tastes than Sam’s _Alice in Wonderland_ Lolita style suited hers.

The tunic’s neckline had been adjusted to rest on the furthest part of her shoulders, making a lovely frame of the lavender fur of her neck and chest while showing off Alastor’s brand of ownership.

Miss Rosie had even been so kind as to give her a full body grooming – which left _nowhere_ unexplored by exceptionally capable hands and enough of her hair and fur on the floor to make a medium sized dog.

Bambi loved it. If Hell had one thing going for it, it was that the Powerful could always shower themselves in luxury. Luckily, she happened to sell her Soul to one of the most powerful.

The fur of her tail and chest were soft like the hair on the top of her head and she just knew Alastor was going to catch her fondling the floor at the _worst_ possible times.

“Give us a turn, then!” Rosie cooed, fluffing Bambi’s merlot colored locks and the lavender fluff. As Bambi spun in place, making the dress flare a bit dramatically. She turned to Alastor, still sat at the tea table, and motioned to the Doe while looking quite chuffed. “Well, what do you think? Pretty as a picture, isn’t she?”

“Hmm…” Alastor spun his microphone like a baton as he made his way over, making a slow circle around Bambi. She barely spared him a glance as she adjusted various little details so they sat _just so_, absolutely enamored with Rosie’s work.

The outfit itself barely registered to him besides the initial annoyance that so much leg was on display. It was practical for his Little Doe; she was a sprinter and liked to do that absurd parkour through his Bayou. It kept her legs and arms free while being quiet obvious to whom she was aligned with the black cross on her bust.

He hummed thoughtfully before nodding in agreement. “Yes, indeedy! She certainly is lookin’ _air tight_, Miss Rosie!”

Sam's neck cracked when she whipped around to stare at him and Bambi choked on her last sip of red tea, the scalding liquid burning her sensitive sinuses as it shot out of her nose. Alastor rubbed her back to try and comfort her, face a smiling show of confusion as she came back from the brink of Double Hell.

"What in Lucifer's name caused that fit, Darling?" 

Bambi snatched his monocle off his face and used it to smack him in the nose, flustered beyond belief at what had just come out of his mouth. 

“What the **FUCK** did you just call me!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Air tight" is 20s slang for Good Looking/Pretty/Beautiful, etc.


	17. Boundaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A kiss on the cheek starts some rumors, but gotta get to work!

Alastor idly tapped out the rhythm of the song he was humming on the hand that rested on his arm as the trio walked down the streets of his territory, Sam leading the way.

Every Sinner and Demon they passed seemed to be either dressed in a similar fashion to Alastor or older with two and three piece suits and flapper dresses everywhere. The amount of pearls decorating the feminine portion was nearly obscene and the masculine side seemed to be in a perpetual cloud of smoke from some kind of tobacco or herbal product, but all used the same outdated slang Alastor did.

He didn’t seem to mind passing a spare few who reeked of marijuana or clove, holding a hand out to a man as he passed and getting a fancy silver pocket-sized case full of the clove cigarillos wrapped in black paper. Others handed him money, which was their “rent” for being under his protection

A few Denizens were eating from a dead body almost every other block. Someone even waved at them with the arm of their victim, blood dripping from their chin and staining their silk clothes! Bambi wasn’t surprised that Sam or herself weren’t disgusted. She could go for a fresh heart or thigh roast right about now herself.

Sam had stepped into a few shops to grab what looked like a mix of modern and ‘vintage’ candies and other foodstuffs. A Demoness who looked like an alligator actually handed her a large picnic basket and packed everything away nice and neat after putting in a bottle of red wine, giving a wide _sharp_ smile when she saw Alastor.

“Bonjour, Monsieur Alastor!”

“I can’t believe you let her treat you that way.”

Alastor glanced down at the grumpy Doe puzzled, looking back at the alligator sweeping the stoop. “Miss Allie?”

“What, who-?” Bambi followed his line of sight and groaned. “No! Mimzy! You were _obviously_ uncomfortable while she molested you!”

“I’ve known Mimzy since I was alive, Bambi dear,” he crowed as he summoned a simple straw hat to tip at a gaggle of women as they passed before it was poofed away, only to repeat the process a few moments later at a trio of men on a street corner. “She’s always been that way!”

Bambi rolled her eyes at the swooning populace, well-adjusted to Alastor and his charms – both physical and verbal. It was the odd slang that she couldn’t automatically translate – like the “air-tight” from this morning – that flustered the absolute shit out of her.

“That doesn’t make it alright…” she grumbled.

Sam turned into the park and made herself at home in a tree. Alastor summoned a blanket for Bambi and himself to sit on while opening the picnic basket and grabbing the bottle wine, summoning two glasses. Bambi declined the wine as she sat, looking out over the surprisingly well kept area. Alastor handed her the other glass anyway, now full of cold water.

The breeze, which was hot and humid, still smelt like their home in Louisiana had and made her a bit nostalgic. She offhandedly wished they could’ve had more time there, but what’s done is done.

“Al, you said we had to talk about how I behave when we’re out and about, right?”

“Indeed! Though you’re already doing markedly better since this morning’s shenanigans,” he mused around his wine. “Contrariwise, Samantha hasn’t listened to a word I’ve said since she got down here.”

“I’m aware.” Bambi leveled the younger sinner in the tree with a disapproving look before looking at her Patron cautiously. The subject she was about to bring up was delicate. “But… I think… you need to think about how you act, too…”

She leaned away, fears flattened, when a wave of static crashed off of him, making loose hairs and her fur stand on end. Keeping eye contact with the blood red pools that were flickering to radio dials, she noted that his smile was particularly sinister now. The Doe fisted her hands in her dress to stop her nervous fidgeting, but she knew her tail was straight up and flashing its white underside in alarm.

“_I beg your pardon?_ And why is that exactly?” he crooned, leaning toward her with his lip curled.

“What if -,” Bambi flinched when the static literally shocked her when she shifted minutely. She worried her bottom lip for a moment before speaking, voice just a tad shaky. “What if one of the other Overlords saw her all over you like that, Alastor?”

“Explain, my dear~, why _anyone_ in this Circle or otherwise would find that interesting or why _I_ should see a problem with it.”

“You’re such an ass,” Sam muttered from above them, hands over her ears and face twisted into a pained snarl as she glared at the Buck.

Alastor cocked his head, expression almost mocking as he took another sip from his glass and ignored Sam’s quip. The glass itself was singing quietly from the frequencies around it in his claws and the possibility of it breaking in his hand from it crossed her mind. She knew his blood was black from what he’d told her, but Bambi wondered what the consistency was for literal second before her mind got back on track.

“Water is wet, the sun is hot, Sam. Anyway, just answer the question! What would happen if another Overlord saw Mimzy – or anyone, for that matter – all over you like she was?” Bambi grabbed a green apple with her claws out of the basket and ran the sharp points of the other hand over it gently in contemplation. She leaned closer to hiss, “People are staring! Turn down the static, please?”

“Tsk, fine!” With a flick of his ear the white noise dropped to his normal level, albeit with a few more aggressive soundbites in it. “They’d know Mimzy is affiliated with me and under my protection, of course.”

“With her hand up your ass to touch your tail, that’s _all_ they’d think?” Bambi deadpanned at him, claws tapping on the tight skin of the fruit.

“Why would they think different, Little Doe?” he scoffed. “I don’t let just _anyone_ touch me!”

Bambi looked at Sam in exasperation, giving her a disbelieving look. The Weasel demoness just shrugged and started on her candy knowing how stubborn the other two were. She had to get comfortable for the show that was about to start:

The **Unmovable Object** Meeting the **Unstoppable Force**.

The purple Doe met Alastor’s smug look with a blank one, glancing over his shoulder and an ear flick the only warning he got before she pulled one of his arms over her shoulder and laced their fingers together. Ignoring the indignant record scratch, she took his moment of surprise to press her lips to his cheek and leave a perfect black imprint of her lips. Alastor’s free hand flew to her face to push her off, but she snatched his hand out of the air and brought it to her lips. Her free hand held his in a prison with grip like iron. His claws were dangerously close to piercing her skin as heart-shaped pupils locked with his, calm as a lake on a windless day.

Her tail was still straight up like a flag, showing her unease, as she pressed their sides together so Alastor could feel her from knee to shoulder.

Feeling his hands shake, Bambi smoothed her thumbs over his knuckles slowly. Alastor moved his mouth a hair’s breadth from her ear, the warm air tickling the fur there and causing shivers.

“What. Are. You. Playing at?” he ground out, lip curled and pupils flickering between dials.

“Proving a point.” She shrugged some tension out of her shoulders, settling herself so she was comfortable against his bony physique. Her face softened and a small blush appeared as she glanced behind him again. “Watch.”

Alastor opened his mouth to retort when voices reached his ears. Schooling his expression, the hand on Bambi’s shoulder migrated to her hip and the other grabbed the forgotten wine glass. The group giggled as they passed, eyes taking in the scene of the Radio Demon canoodling his new protégé.

They heard the words “courting” and “lovers” tossed around – just from them _sitting_ next to each other – and it made Alastor tense next to Bambi despite her comforting presence.

Once they’d disappeared around a corner, Bambi immediately moved away from him with ears turned back to make sure the audience was gone. She didn’t smile as he sat up and set his suit and hair to rights, she kept her eyes trained on the spot between his own or his nose. Sam was on the edge of her branch waiting to see his response as he stood and took a few steps away from the blanket.

“You can’t let people get away with doing what they want to you, Alastor, even if it’s just little touches… Outside of your estate, _anyone_ could see and make their own assumptions,” she tried. After several tense moments of no reply, Bambi stood a pace or two behind him knowing she was by no means safe at this range if he decided to lash out, but took a chance. “All it takes is one person saying the wrong thing at the wrong time –”

“So you do the exact same thing…” he drawled, voice eerily calm. “To prove your point?”

“I know I crossed a line.” Bambi went to cross her arms over her chest but put her hands behind her back instead, standing tall despite the nervousness causing tiny tremors throughout her body. “If you’re gonna punish me for embarrassing you, I accept it.”

Alastor’s head turned to gaze at her over his shoulder, smile suspiciously neutral. She was quite obviously nervous, but she kept her spine straight. Those defiant heart-shaped pupils didn’t meet his own slitted ones, a habit he wanted her to break, but she knew better than to take her eyes off his face. Knowing his little Doe had a problem standing up to men larger than her, a little pride bloomed in his chest despite the annoyance from her actions.

They’d both said that men raising their voices or certain tones triggered them, he’d seen it himself while visiting them in the Living World, but both had given as good as they got. It had given them **quite** the reputation all over the Crescent City for their “Do No Harm, Take No Shit” attitudes.

Given only one year of freedom, both of his charges had outgrown their insecurities for the most part. Now, it seemed, one was trying to help him with his own.

“I will… begrudgingly admit,” he said, turning fully to face the Doe. “That I may be letting Mimzy get away murder, so to speak, due to our familiarity –”

“‘May’?” Bambi scoffed, tail whipping around in agitation. “She touched parts of you I haven’t even asked to!”

“AND!” he leveled the merlot haired Demon with a look. “I do indeed see your point. My comfort aside, my reputation alone can’t stop every rumor; even Lucifer and his family have their fair share still circulating the Nine Circles and they run this joint.”

“Okay… And?” Bambi looked and sounded unsure as he walked towards her, like she was ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. “What’s to be done?”

“I will address it immediately, my dear!” he suddenly exclaimed, leaning down to her level and patting between her ears like a dog before sending their picnic away with a swift snap. “Can’t have anything spoil your debut tonight!”

“Debut?” she echoed, finally meeting his eyes in confusion. “What debut?”

“Why your introduction to my dear listeners, of course!” Alastor pulled her into a quick twirl that left her dizzy and dipping her. She yelped and wrapped one leg around his when neither foot could touch the ground, her ears brushing the grass. “It’s well overdue thanks to your late arrival, Sweetheart, and folks are just _dyin’_ to meet you!”

“If your moods don’t give me whiplash, your impromptu dances will,” she muttered.

“Banana oil! You’ll be fine!” He whipped her up to set her back on her feet and started dragging her back toward Mimzy’s bar. “Once that’s done, we’ll set off to the perfect stage for your performance!”

* * *

“That could’ve gone better…” Sam said, wincing at the glass Alastor was taking out of Bambi’s shoulder.

“I regret _nothing_,” she growled, short tail lashing around angrily and bushed up to twice its size.

After watching Alastor fumble with his words while trying to fend off the plump blonde, being entirely too polite in her opinion, Bambi had intervened. With a snarl and a firm grip of her wrist, she’d literally dragged the older Sinner off of him. The Doe made it abundantly clear that Alastor was uncomfortable with Mimzy’s touching and that it needed to stop, said Overlord nodding in agreement.

Mimzy hadn’t liked being told no by a “floozy” and slapped Bambi across the face, cutting her cheek in the process. The Doe touched the wound, red staining the lavender of her fingertips.

“Well, shit…”

Alastor had only seconds to jump behind the bar with the bartender Sphynx, Husker and pulled Sam with him before Bambi bulldozed the flapper with an enraged shriek. The bar looked like a hurricane swept through it within a matter of minutes. Before it could devolve into an episode of _Jerry Springer_, Alastor had scooped her up and teleported the three of them home when he spotted a News 666 van pulling up.

“You’re lucky the bar wasn’t open or Mimzy’s fan boys would’ve gotten involved,” Alastor hummed, suit jacket off and sleeves rolled to his elbows while he pulled out shards of glass. Bambi only growled quietly in response. “It was _very_ entertaining to see a good ol’ catfight again!”

Bambi’s new dress was shredded and tossed out as soon as they stepped out of the shadows. Now she sat in just her shorts and shoes, bra flung who-knows-where so Alastor’s work was unimpeded, stewing in her thoughts. One leg bounced while she straddled the kitchen chair, her tail occasionally thumping Alastor’s knees when he removed a stubborn shard.

Soon enough he was done and licking the blood off his hands while tossing the glass shards out. Bambi pulled on his suit jacket as Alastor all but flounced into her room and flung open the doors to her now full wardrobe. Sam set to combing her hair as the Radio Demon started going through the clothes. Dresses, trousers, and shirts flew onto the bed with dismissive remarks with each one.

“This just won’t do!” he groused, all but pouting as he threw his hands into the air. “All these new clothes and not one damn thing that’ll work!”

Sam had already changed into a more sensible outfit that didn’t have her weight in petticoats and Bambi had changed the plugs in her ears to silver ones, same with the two studs in her tongue and belly ring. No one was gonna see the nipple piercings, so who gave a fuck, right?

“Is my corset still good to wear?” Bambi chimed hopefully from the vanity.

“We’ll have to hand-wash it, first. Now let me think!” He waved her off dismissively, continuing to dig through the mountain of fabric.

She gave him an unimpressed look before she grabbed a few pieces of clothing and left the room. Sam decided to stay and suggest the most abysmal combinations just to get on Alastor’s nerves while she was unsupervised, knowing he couldn’t do shit to punish her. He was threatening to banish her to his microphone when his suit jacket landed on his head in a wad of silk.

“If you don’t stop fuckin’ around, we’re gonna be late, Al!” she called from downstairs. Alastor followed her voice to the entryway, seeing her touching up her hair and make-up with the mirror.

“You can’t go out in just your shorts! Someone could get one of those blasted ‘videos’ and it’d be all over the picture… show…”

She had kept her silver scale wedges on and traded her shorts for black pair of skinny jeans, a belt with a large deer skull buckle, and one of his shirts. She’d found one of her black fashion corsets and laced that on over the shirt allowing it to fall off both shoulders and the shirt to have a European tuck in the front. The sleeves were rolled up to her wrists and pinned there with some silver antler shaped cufflinks.

“Appearances are everything down here. I know, I know,” she sighed as she pulled the mane of hair into a ponytail. “Half my head shaved and I still have too much damn hair…”

Bambi looked very “punk rock,” if he had to use a modern phrase. To his surprise, he didn’t hate it. It actually suited her very well! Though he was sure she had to quickly cut and hem a hole in the back for her tail…

Alastor snapped his jaw shut when Sam pushed past him to help Bambi adjust the shirt. He was sure that if it weren’t for that corset, she’d be absolutely _swimming_ in it. He shook that train of thought right out of his head as he approached the women at the door.

Bambi used a touch of pomade to keep some fly-away hairs around her ears down, fluffing the locks she’d left out to act as bangs and the ponytail. Seeing him in the mirror finally, she did a small turn to show off a bit despite being a bit nervous.

“So?” she asked, eyes wide like a doll. “How do I look?”

Alastor turned her back to the mirror and pulled Sam to her side, placing his hands on their shoulders as he gazed upon their reflection. His smile turned feral, the women following suit as a static haze descended on them.

“Like you’re ready to paint the town, ṙ̗̺̳̝̟̖̄̈́͐͛̓e͍̖̤̣͑ͫ̑̚d̂.”

* * *


	18. We're Coming to You Live!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alastor finally shows off his shiny new toy to the Pentagram!

Alastor had taken them to a neighborhood just on the outside of his own territory where neon strobed on nearly every building and Sinners clogged the streets nearly shoulder to shoulder. After giving a passing electronics store the stink eye, he lifted his microphone to the sky and summoned a red barrier around several blocks. After a moment, the Sinners’ caught on and began to panic – running every which way or trying to bang on the barrier while the trio calmly walked to the center.

“As you see, _this_ is now your playground, my dear!” Alastor made a grand sweeping gesture. “You can kill anyone within however you’d like!”

“Anyone?” Bambi looked around at the chaos curiously. “There’s no Overlords here?”

“Well, this _is_ a bit of Valentino’s territory, but it’s on the fringe.” Alastor waved off her look of concern as Sam broke away from them to start her own fun. “He wouldn’t send even his lowliest of whores to this area!”

“If you say so –”

“Thank you for tuning in once again, faithful listeners! I’m terribly sorry for my absence this past week – my special guest was late arriving!” Alastor spoke into his mic, his whole body coming alive as the eye glowed ominously. Somehow his smile, while manic, looked more genuine now that he was in his element. _“As you know I made a deal in the Living World some time ago and the little darling finally decided to grace us with her presence! Say hello, Bambi my dear~”_

Pulling her tighter to his side than she had been at the park, she sarcastically introduced herself with, “Good evening, fuckdoors.”

_“Good thing there’s no censorship down here!”_ he chortled. _“Now I know I delighted you all with the Broadcasts of her revenge up top, but tonight is her big debut! Let’s see how she does with no leash, shall we~?”_

“None of your vintage stuff, Al, please?” Bambi whined when classic jazz began to warble in their dome. “Can’t I choose what I slaughter to?”

“Depends on what you have in mind, Bambi dear. I certainly won’t broadcast any of your…” The glow from his eyes and smile lessened, going off air for himself she supposed, as he turned to her. His tone was a little guarded as he used air quotes, “Hip-Hop, K-Pop, or that Death Techno nonsense I know you’re so fond of on my station.”

“Actually I think I have something both of us can enjoy.” Bambi gave him her best kitten face, eyes wide and bottom lip pouting for dramatic effect. “_Pleeeeeease?_”

Alastor’s heart stuttered minutely in his chest at the sight, lip curling. Her heart shaped pupils and soft features made his little Doe seem much more innocent than she was. With her ears drooping back just so, it was akin to looking at a sad kitten when they realized they were about to get a bath.

_That face should be illegal…_

“You’re lucky you’re cute, Darling.” He handed her the microphone with a flourish, smirking when seeing the top of her head was barely taller. “Don’t disappoint me, now~”

“Don’t worry!” Black lips stretched into a wide smile as her eyes turned into those mercurial equalizer bars and the song changed. “You’ll like it - promise!”

It was something familiar, but new…

Different…

**Better~**

* * *

“What are we hiding from?”

Two Chihuahua Sinners screamed when Bambi whispered in their ears from the shadows. They tripped over each other as they tried to scramble from behind the dumpster, only to have lavender claws catch one by the neck and the other by their heel. As one head bounced off the asphalt with a sickening crack, their partner howled in agony as their calf muscle was ripped clean off by sharp fangs.

_“Ooh, that looked like it hurt! This little Doe of a Dear isn’t showing any mercy tonight – she’s on a roll!!”_

Alastor’s voice was nothing but white noise as Bambi swallowed the lump of flesh with a groan and immediately went for her victim’s throat to silence their whimpering before devouring their heart. She then turned her attention to the Sinner whose skull she’d shattered. They had crawled to the entrance of the alley, leaving a thick trail of blood that she didn’t bother to avoid as she stepped up to them.

“P-please don’t–!”

The plea cut short as a hand punched into their chest. With a final gurgling wheeze, a heart was pulled from them and down Bambi’s gullet in a matter of seconds. After tearing the front of the neck out with her claws, Bambi held the body up so the remaining blood would spill into her mouth in a macabre waterfall.

_“Thank goodness for dark colors when you’re taking a bloodbath, eh?”_ he joked to his audience.

A laughtrack echoed across the Pentagram as Electro-Swing played in surround sound; the perfect mix of old and new!

A garbled shriek from down the street turned her attention to none other than Sam, dismembering Sinners with her Angel-Blade scythe and leaving their limbless bodies to rot. With a giggle warped with radio interference, Bambi joined her sister.

She took the hearts from their victims, a new surge of power thrumming under her skin with each one as their Souls joined the small shadow army she’d already accrued. Sam didn’t touch them outside of looting their bodies, the adorable little klepto.

Bambi was mid-bite on a still steaming heart when she was bowled over by a larger Bull Sinner. She rolled and popped up on her feet with a snarl to face the Bull, too high on power and adrenaline to give two shits that he was nearly three times her size and could probably bench a tank.

“You freaks cock-blocked me!” he growled and pawed at the ground in agitation, pointing at the Sinner Bambi had been eating from. “I paid that whore for a full night!”

“Gods, you’re not very bright are you?” she mumbled, looking him over.

With his ridiculously large horns that were as wide as his skull at the base and at least four foot span, the Sinner looked like an Ankole Longhorn inspired Minotaur. His upper body was ripped to the point of being near useless, and while his digitigrade legs were more bone than anything they were still covered in muscle.

The guy was a fucking freight train on hooves.

Bambi took a moment to assess the situation and finish her snack before smirking.

“I saved them some disappointment, then!” Her neon optical bars danced with mirth as she cocked her hips. “Those horns are definitely compensating for _something_, I’d say~”

Veins in his neck and his eyes bulged in anger. “The fuck you just say to me, bitch!?”

“I said – You. Have. A. Small. Dick!” Bambi said in a deliberately slow and mocking tone.

With a deep bellow he charged her again and she met him in the middle, using his cumbersome horns to swing onto his shoulders and wrapping her legs around his thick neck. The bull thrashed around, sending them tearing down the street as he tried to dislodge her. Alastor’s commentary was lost to her with the sound of blood rushing in Bambi’s ears. The bull slammed against anything to get her off; brick walls, dumpsters, neon signs, glass storefronts, but she held on with locked ankles and claws dug into his horns like handlebars.

A smile split her bloody face and giggles flowed freely from her mouth the whole time, despite the damage done to herself; that was a Future Bambi problem. After a few minutes, though, the game was no longer amusing. Just tedious.

“It’s been eight seconds of fun, but this is my stop!” she said gleefully. Grabbing the stupidly cliché gold ring in his nose, she wrenched his head back to look at the red sky. “Thanks for the ride!”

Losing sight of his feet, the Sinner’s cloven hooves tripped over a small pile of rubble and he went down like a sack of bricks when Bambi killed off his shoulders. His own weight smashing into the rubble shattered his shins and left slivers of white peeking through the tough skin while his chin ricocheted off the pavement.

Oval pupils were horizontal slits while the whites of his eyes exaggerated their panicked rolling as he tried to reorient himself. He kept trying to stand up despite his mangled legs, bones grating against each other. That couldn’t feel any kind of good, but he looked like one of those ‘Roid Rage assholes so he probably couldn’t even feel it.

“Not gonna lie, friend. I've missed the taste of beef!” Bambi stalked towards him. “Can’t wait to cook you up tonight!”

Static danced across her body and began to flood the street, street lamps and neon flickering erratically at the interference. From the shadows came Bambi’s red Stag familiar, followed by her now dozens of other snarling bucks with their carnivorous mouths and deadly antlers. Ghostly wails and the panicked screams of those trapped within the dome mixed with the lively Electro-Swing in a dark symphony.

The Stag seemed to prance around the Bull in excitement, who froze in place as he recognized the colors in the fur. Rolling onto his back, fear flooded his eyes when they landed on the tiny purple Doe.

“Ho-holy shit…!” he gasped, body shaking hard enough to set himself off-balance. “The R-r-radio Dem-m-mon –!”

“There it is! We _finally_ understand who we’re fuckin’ with, hmm?” She clapped condescendingly as she got closer, a thrill going through her when he cowered in her shadow. “Give the man a star, guys, gals, and non-binary pals!”

_“Stop playing with your food, Sweetheart! We have a schedule to keep, you know!”_

“Ugh, fine!"

Crouching on his chest and pulling the blubbering Bull’s head up by his gaudy nose ring, Bambi found a weak point above his clavicle and ripped the muscle out with her teeth. Swallowing the savory meat with a moan, she shoved a hand into the hot, free flowing wound.

Rather… she _tried_ to. The Bull Sinner was much larger than her and it was difficult to keep his rather large head out of the way to get into the wound without getting knocked out by his horns.

Wrapping a leg under his chin and the other under the arm opposite the wound, Bambi locked her ankles together and squeezed her legs together to immobilize her prey. Now is other arm was the only problem and she was getting sick and tired of this asshole grabbing her hair.

“Fucking – damn it!” With a flash of blue energy, something manifested in Bambi’s hand and she pierced it through the Bull’s without a trace of hesitation. “S̶̩̙̭̩͋̅̉t̷̝̆̋͘ä̵̱̝̰́̄͂y̴̜̦̏͌͆͌ ̵͙͔̞̔̚͘d̸̫̝̥͎̖͋̚ǫ̵̩̦̖̗̟͑̈̋̓ẅ̸̛͖͕̼̣̒́̆͘͜n̴̰̥̥̹̻̲͌̓̅̀̎!̶̻̱̱̦͕̯̋͌̎̋̓̈”

She took the opportunity to shove both hands into her prey’s chest and snatch his heart out, taking a large bite out of the still beating organ as he _shrieked_ in terror. Her thighs strained to keep him immobilized as she ate her fading prize, warm blood covering her entire torso from just his heart alone. Once fully devoured, it took a moment for the Bull to stop moving as he bled out. Bambi took the time to look at what she’d summoned and her jaw dropped.

It was a microphone, similar to a flat one voice actors and singers would use as they recorded. The mic itself was centered with six stabilizing bars with a ring around it that connected to the staff itself and a glowing eye on the back. It was all a sleek matte black that fit perfectly in her palm when she pulled it out of the corpse with an obnoxious squelch.

_“Well, wouldja look at that, ladies and gentlemen – my little Darling of a Doe has summoned her own microphone! And on her FIRST HUNT no less! Could bring a tear to my eye, how fast she’s learning!”_

She smiled up at where Alastor was standing on the corner of a building with his eyes – his smile – his own microphone glowing. With renewed energy, she bound off to kill more with her microphone in tow! The sound of the slaughter became crystal clear on the radio waves with her new instrument and it fueled Bambi to be even more vicious in her pursuits.

The herd of deer she’d summoned began feasting on the corpses left behind by the two women with a few even corralling the survivors for Mistress.

It made her giddy to see the approval in those retro radio dials as she continued to rip Sinners apart as he **l a u g h e d** at their misery and fear, static cutting in and out during his commentary.

The sound sent tingles up Bambi’s spine in the **best** of ways~

* * *

It took over an hour to get all the blood out of her fur, another thirty to dry herself off, but now Bambi sat with Alastor in his office. She was curled up in one corner of the couch cleaning her new microphone in a tank top and jersey shorts while he was at his desk taking stock of his payments from those in his territory. Some soft jazz was emitting from his own mic that was propped against the desk and all was calm.

“Where is our dear Samantha?”

“She said she wanted to sort her loot from today, so we probably won’t see her for the rest of the night,” Bambi said while smoothing the rag over the ring. “She do that often?”

“Every time!” Alastor put a band around a stack of money and set it to the side. “It’s become habit since she arrived. As long as she’s not letting anything rot in her room, I see no reason to dissuade the behavior.”

Bambi hummed to show she heard as she put down the rag and stood to begin practicing dismissing and manifesting the staff. More than once she smacked herself in the face or dropped it in a fumble, but Alastor did his best to keep his amusement to himself by hiding his face behind his cup of coffee. He was facing the window, away from the interior of the room, but she knew. She’d catch his shoulders shaking silently when she yelped.

About a quarter of an hour later she dismissed the microphone with a huff after a particularly hard hit to her nose that made her eyes water. She wasn’t even trying anything fancy! Just trying to summon the damn thing into her hand! It had to be because of how sore she was after the thrashing the Bull gave her

“Giving up, my dear?”

“Eat my entire ass, Alastor,” she grumbled, making him cackle. She draped her arms over his shoulders and propped her chin on the top of his head, something she’d made a habit of in life that he didn’t mind so long as hands didn’t wander. Even while he was sitting down, Bambi needed to be on her tiptoes to do it. “Are you almost done? I’m _booooored_! Entertain me.”

“My, my! You are in a mood tonight, aren’t you?” He chuckled at her whining, patting her hands where they crossed over his chest and marked a few more amounts in his ledger. “Just a bit more, sweet one. I have to make sure affairs are in order.”

Moving her head to his right shoulder, Bambi took note of the neat cursive that was Alastor’s handwriting in the rather large book. It was one of the vintage ledgers that took up a good majority of the desk and each page was meticulously kept. It was mostly black ink from an inkwell with a simple red feather quill pen, but there were a few marked with red ink in the shape of his brand. Fewer still were marked with gold ink from a small stamp that bore the same mark.

“I see that your residents know to be prompt with payments,” she sighed, leaning her head against his. She tapped in the margin next to a red brand and then a gold one with the tip of a claw, careful not to smudge it. “What do these mean?”

“Hmm? Oh, those. Red means they’re late, gold means they’re ahead by at least one month,” Alastor said dismissively.

“What happens when someone’s late?”

Alastor smirked at her from the corner of his eye as he used the red stamp next to some poor Sinner’s name. The smile was predatory, lip curled and eyes sly like a fox. She knew that look, she _loved_ that look.

“They fill the freezer. Got it.”

“Indeed!” He pet her hair, making the ear he went over fold back with a soft hum. “I’m almost done, my dear. Be a doll and go pick a book for us to read; one of my hand-written ones, if you please!”

Bambi released him to go peruse his collection on the opposite wall. Coming to the ones he’d written himself since his descent to Hell, she tapped the rather colorful leather spines thoughtfully.

_Loa & Lore…_

_Rituals & Offerings…_

_Loa Mounting…_

_Practical Household Voodoo…_

_How to Cook Long Pig…_

“Are these bound in the skin of your victims?”

“Only Overlords I’ve beaten, Darling.”

Bambi hummed again, pulling out the scaly green book for _Practical Household Voodoo_. The thick book pulled on her sore muscles in her shoulders and made her hiss. Rolling her shoulders she flashed the spine at Alastor, who nodded as he finished counting out the cigarettes and cigars he’d been given.

Bambi poured him a finger of whiskey as he hung up his suit jacket and removed his suspenders, letting them hang at his sides. Snapping his shoes and bowtie away, he handed Bambi the brooch that was usually pinned on the knot as he made himself comfortable in his armchair near the fireplace. Bambi sent a small blue flame into the wood she’d stacked when they first got home and slunk into Alastor’s lap like a pampered housecat.

If he was bothered by her clingy behavior, the Radio Demon said nothing; just sipped his whiskey while Bambi got comfortable. So long as there were no wandering hands, there was harmony.

Niffty was likely to have a conniption when she saw what he let Bambi could get away with>

With her head on his shoulder and both legs tossed over the opposite arm, she finally opened the book to begin their nightly lessons. Voodoo was not the same as her own green witchcraft, so they had to find a middle-ground where there could be an overlap. It wouldn’t be hard to find them; plenty of Loa and creatures were nature based. It was narrowing the amount down to a select few that would be an issue.

“Boli Shah looks promising. I could grow the trees from a seed and form it into a Gollum.”

“You wouldn’t be angering any Loa by leaving the forest intact, as well.” Alastor smoothed his hand over the top of her head. “What else makes it a good choice?”

“They also take power from the people who live in the home. You alone are enough to make the Boli Shah a formidable obstacle for any trespasser,” she mused, fingers absently fiddling with the brooch. “As Sam and I grow, it’ll also take power from us. The burden of keeping it going would be more evenly spread over time.”

“Very good, my dear!” Alastor chuckled at the light blush that graced her cheeks at the praise. “You can try your hand at making one tomorrow afternoon.”

Bambi paused in her fidgeting to look up at him in confusion. “Why not in the morning?”

“You were tossed around like a ragdoll by that bull today. You’re going to be stiffer than an Irish coffee in the morning!”

“If I can even sleep,” she scoffed, lips turning into a pout as she slouched in his lap and crossed her arms. “I already had some herbal tea to help me calm down before my shower, but there’s still this _itch_ under my skin.”

“I did notice the constant bouncing of your legs and you have yet to leave my accessory alone,” he said, laying a hand on one of her calves to halt its movement. “Describe it for me, darling. This ‘itch.’”

“Yeah… I’d rather not…” The Doe’s cheeks reddened once again, this time a much darker shade, as she averted her gaze to the fireplace. The claws on her knee tapped and ran over the fur there, making goosebumps breakout all over that side of her body. Bambi smacked his hand flat against the joint. “Would you stop that!?”

“Goodness, you are flustered!” He tapped one of the metal tunnels in her ears only to cackle when she smacked his hand away. “Just tell me and I’ll end your suffering, sweetheart.”

“You really don’t want to know, Al – Don’t you **DARE!**”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, you silly girl.”

“Remove your hand this _instant!_”

Alastor smiled deviously at the woman in his arms, her own hands planted on his shoulders to keep him away. With one of his much longer arms wrapped around her waist, it didn’t do much, especially with the other poised just over her ribcage. Bambi’s whole body was tense with one foot on the armrest and the other on the side table.

“Tell me what’s keeping you awake! If you don’t…” Fingertips devoid of claws skated across her ribs and made her flail in his hold with a choked yelp. It was only his arms that kept her from landing on the floor.

“You can’t help, I **promise**! Just let me go, please?” She was ridiculously and terribly ticklish on the right days and her good mood was an indicator of that weakness. “It’s fine!”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Alastor began to ruthlessly tickle her. Bambi screamed bloody murder, high and loud, body thrashing in his hold as she devolved into panicked laughter. She tried to slump off of his lap to the floor, but he scooped her back up into the prison of his arms. Alastor pried her hands away from her sides when Bambi tried to curl in a ball to protect herself, releasing another screech from the woman.

“I can make it all stop if you just tell me~ Oof!”

A hand knocked off his monocle while her legs kicked off the back of the armchair, sending both of them sprawling to the floor with a grunt. Bambi scrambled out from under him and made a break for the kitchen, giggles following in her wake. She barely dodged an attempt at her ankle by vaulting over the couch. If the following house-shaking thud was any indication, Alastor had followed her route and was hot on her heels.

Cursing her short stature when she heard his footsteps catching up, she slid around the corner into the kitchen and made the swinging door smack Alastor in the face as he tried to skid to a stop. He slowly pushed the door open to find Bambi with her arms braced against the island – which was comical because it came up to her chest. She was panting, cheeks aglow and smile wide as she tensed to run again.

“You’re being a _very_ naughty girl, Bambi~” he playfully growled at her, claws ghosting the cool countertop with light taps. His smile turned predatory as her tail stood on end and started to vibrate, for lack of a better term. “Why won’t you just tell me what’s keeping you up, my dear?”

Instead of answering, Bambi feinted to the right. Alastor went to follow and left the way open for her to launch herself over the counter and streak out the door again with a victorious cackle. It was cut off with a squeak when an arm wrapped around her waist and she was thrown onto the couch with a giggle. Alastor caged her in and attacked her ribs again, laughing at the resulting shriek and squirming.

Her hands gripped his wrists as she tried in to tug his hands away. “AAH HAHA! PLEASE, I’M GONNA PEE - STOP!”

“Do you yield?” Alastor paused after a few moments, hands planted on either side of her hips to keep her in place. “Will you tell me?”

Bambi’s face was so red it was showing through her fur, chest heaving with panting giggles. Her eyes shimmered with tears of laughter and her smile was blinding. She was beautiful, if he was honest.

“She’s horny, you moron.”

Both deer froze at the voice that cut their moment short, feedback screeching for a split second. Alastor sat back from Bambi to look around, trying to find the source while her ears swiveled around in alarm. Hearing a crunch Bambi looked up at the corner of the ceiling to see yellow eyes glowing from a hole.

“Um… Al?”

He turned to look himself and a scrunched up chip back smacked him in the face. Tossing it aside, he locked eyes with the pest in his ceiling in distaste. A raccoon head popped out of the hole, hot pink instead of brown fur surrounding the eyes.

“What do you want, rodent?” he scoffed.

The raccoon rolled her eyes and leaned out further until her torso was hanging from the hole. “She wants the D, man. She wants to bone. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?”

Bambi’s face drained of color as the newcomer’s words registered. She fell back and covered her face with her hands, groaning into them. Alastor didn’t seem to understand. _At. All._

“Speak plainly before I turn your into a crispy critter!” he threatened.

“She wants to FUCK, dumbass!” she scoffed.

The combined feedback that ripped across the bayou startled birds from their roosts, frogs and bugs were silent, and even the gators flinched. Besides the raccoon chomping on her chips, the house was a silent box of embarrassment.

“Soooooo… Ya gonna fuck on the couch or?”

**“S͏̥̹͕̣H͔̯̤͗ͣ͆Ű̞̫̚T ͔͐U̴̓ͫ̊̿ͧ̎́P̶!”**


	19. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hello everyone! 

I deeply apologize for the literal half year absence, but I had a fallingo it with some friends whose OCs I was using and then the political climate of the US is just a trash fire so I've been too stressed to write!

I have not abandoned this story of my other Hazbin ones. I'm just on hiatus for a little while.

Once I find a new place to live, I promise to update more regularly!

Thank you for the support and patience 😭 All the kudos and comments I still get make me literally blush and giggle so much I look like a fool, but they make my day!

Lots of love from your lovely Cannibal Caribou!

**Author's Note:**

> If you are reading this anywhere other than AO3, it was stolen and reposted without my permission and I do not want it on that platform.  
You can follow my Tumblr [Alastor's Bambi](https://alastors-bambi.tumblr.com/).  
I'm on Twitter, too, so you can follow me at [Alastor's Bambi](https://twitter.com/AlastorsBambi?s=09/)
> 
> Hope to see you soon, Hazbin Hoes! 
> 
> **I do not support the app Fanfic Pocket Archive or any app that reposts ANY work from AO3.**


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